A Lark Ascending

Richard Thompson playing 'Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?' from 'Shoot Out the Lights' in Sheffield last night - really hit home.

Finished it yesterday, Bill. Thanks for the recommendation - I thoroughly enjoyed it, right down to Roger's clearly empty promises to change in the last line. Though, like Roger, I took a fancy to Matya!

I spend a lot of my time working with kids on historical interpretations and the various reasons the past is understood or represented differently (though Mr. Gove is working to put a stop to that - it'll soon be 'Our Island Story' again!). The responses in this thread are fascinating in that respect - memories of 1973 are so different. You'd expect that between countries, but even MG and myself in the same place (though maybe 10 years apart in age) have such a different recollection. Imagine what it looked like to the 11 year olds I had to supervise as an 18 year old prefect at school discos - yes, it was Suzi Quatro, T. Rex, Slade, Osmonds etc. 1973 was also the year of: 'You don't get me, I'm part of the union...' Having flirted briefly with the Strawbs I was horrified by them on TofTP with eyeliner!

In my odd memory 1970 to maybe 1974 were the golden years. 1970 is pretty arbitrary being the year I first started buying records. But when I listened to late 60s albums, although I came to love a lot of them, there was something a bit brittle about the recorded sound. Something happened to recording around 69/70 - 8, 16 track recording perhaps - that made things sound richer, more varied, less baroque (maybe it was also the passing of psychedelia). Though there was plenty of plodding from musicians with limited abilities (or experience), the records I treasure from that period had a light and shade, a sense of colour, a willingness to shift from full on electric to jangly acoustic that sounded just right. A band like Free who could produce fairly lumpy blues-rock could also switch to something lithe and airy (the way their albums started to become overblown as early as 73 suggests the direction things were heading). I didn't abandon rock until 76/77 but as early as 75 I can recall becoming discontented - this was probably because most of my early favourites had run out of ideas/were blowing their advances on indulgences rather than improving their music. But there was also a sense that around that time the 'suits' had finally got around to understanding how to control things; and that recording techniques were starting to allow that sort of sound where every space gets filled. And the colours of the early period got blended as synths replaced the range of sounds you could get out of steam driven instruments. That's probably not how it was at all; but from someone who came of age in Britain in 1970 that's how it appeared; 1973 was well inside the good times. [Health warning - beyond CSN&Y and Chicago my listening was almost exclusively domestic until mid-73. That summer was when I 'discovered' Dylan; and in a quite different direction, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. On the same day!] This was another nice one from '73: Doesn't have that fairytale magic that their three classics had but there were some good songs.

I have a bizarre ability to recall when I bought things (which doesn't necessarily mean they were released then!). I associate that record along with Fairport 'Live' with autumn '74. Remember going on a spree in London (after spending my holidays working in the NAAFI in Germany with very little worth buying in the NAAFI shop and the German record shops too expensive) just before returning to uni. This too came out in late '73. The first side had been played during King Crimson concerts prior to the band going on - you can hear it in some of the live recordings that have subsequently appeared.

Oh dear! Only a matter of time before you start buying all those Wynton records! (one of those smileys denoting that this is not a serious point but a bit of gentle ribbing) But all the Wynton albums have bass, drums or piano, no? I'm sure he must have a Jazz String Quartet or Jazz Requiem somewhere without.

Sandy Denny - Like an old fashioned waltz I have a feeling that was '74.

This classic also came out in 1973: Henry Cow - Legend I'm not sure if I heard it then - but I did see them in a small room at Reading University towards the end of the year. A friend of mine was the first to get the record so I may have heard it in his room that year or early the next. Not a classic but one I remember with affection: They broke up not long after its release. Remember hearing 'Boom Bang' as a single quite a bit and I had a radio broadcast of songs from it on tape. Got the record in the summer holidays (out of money picking strawberries in Norfolk, IIRC!)

Merci - Todd Rundgren is someone I don't really know.

Charlie Christian - Swing to Bop - always puts me in a springy mood.

Unashamedly nostalgic thread. I was reading an article in Mojo yesterday about John Martyn's two great albums of 1973 - 'Solid Air' and 'Inside Out' and it listed a few of the classic rock albums of that year. Quadrophenia - The Who Catch a Fire - Bob Marley Innervisions - Stevie Wonder A Wizard - ? A True Star - ? Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield Dixie Chicken - Little Feet Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd Band on the Run - Wings Berlin - Lou Reed For Your Pleasure - Roxy Music Let's Get it On - Marvin Gaye Coundown to Ecstasy - Steely Dan Only the Floyd and Oldfield records were on my radar (though Band on the Run was everywhere in the halls of residence I joined as I started Uni in the September). The other ones that dominate my memories were Larks Tongues in Aspic - King Crimson Bananamour - Kevin Ayers Birds of Fire - Mahavishnu Nine - Fairport Convention (their return to form) Selling England By the Pound - Genesis (which I didn't much like at the time) Tales of Topographic Oceans - which I loved whilst the British music press really got its pre-punk knives out. All of this is so subjective, but looking back it's almost like the last year when there was a wave of rock music that spoke to me. Some marvellous albums did follow but by 1975 I was getting less from it and everything seemed to be stiffening and becoming more produced. Totally as seen from my perspective then - I would later hear other records from that year that would become favourites (e.g. the Steely Dan and John Martyns), including many from genres like jazz, folk (classical!) that I was only dimly aware of then. So, regardless of genre, what was 1973 like musically for you? (apologies to those not yet born!) And was it really 40 years ago?

Oh dear! Only a matter of time before you start buying all those Wynton records! (one of those smileys denoting that this is not a serious point but a bit of gentle ribbing)

Talking of Lester Young, I was listening to 'I Want to be Happy' off 'The Jazz Scene' a while back and that sounded pretty joyful. In fact you'd be hard pressed not to make that tune joyful. And how about Paul Bley's 'Mr. Joy'? The version on 'Turning Point' has been a celebration tune for me since I first heard it on Jazz Record Requests (I think) in the late '70s.

Don't think you'll find any pesky bass, drums or piano here.

(Not my picture) Richard Thompson in wonderful form - the trio format works brilliantly for him. No clutter, lots of guitar. Even a Hendrix-version 'Hey Joe' towards the end as 'power trio' reference. Lots from the new album mixed in with various motorcycles, walls of death, tear stained letters, Al Bowllys and the like. All played to an audience who looked much the same as the people I see at classical and jazz concerts i.e. very old (I include myself)! Worth catching on his UK dates; he's then doing a run through various stockades in the colonies.

I think it has something to do with time zones. Normality is generally restored once the clocks have done their business in late March. On the other hand it could be just because Wagner goes on for hours.

Indeed - looks depressing. Wouldn't mind seeing Vasen on the Monday - you don't often get Scandinavian folkies over here but not worth the trip. Has Nod Knowles gone? I know he went to a more overall position. He seemed to be the enthusiast for the unusual in my years there. Bring back the alphorns!

Most of Metheny's mainstream recordings - the PMG etc - sound to me like an instrumental version of 'Rumours'-era Fleetwood Mac. Not what I want every day but something I find melodic and upbeat. Good music for driving to. He definitely has a 'signature sound'. What makes him interesting is his willingness to regularly go off at a tangent. '80/81' is the one I keep returning to.

I think you are confusing a TV documentary with a specialist academic treatise. Getting anything non-populist music-wise on UK TV is an achievement in itself. I doubt if the budget would have been very large. As a result you are going to end with something generalised without the sort of in-depth checking you might expect of a serious study.

A record I like a great deal. I bought it around the time it came out, knowing PM's music quite well, unfamiliar with JS. Coming from a more folksy background , PM connected early whereas JS's more bluesy approach was a taste I had to acquire. I got a bit tired of PM a few years back - just a bit too rawk, an aversion to the synth sounds. But over recent days I've been backtracking and enjoying PM, including the more recent Unity Band record. One thing I like about him is that wide open, optimistic feel to his playing. That's quite rare - contemporary jazz tends to favour a more oblique, knowing, guarded approach. PM still sounds like an enthusiastic college boy, excited by the world's possibilities. It would be annoying if everyone sounded like that - but given how rare it is, he makes a welcome change.

'Yellow Hill' off the first Loose Tubes album. In fact, joy was one of their trademark approaches to jazz, cocking a bit of a snook at earnestness. I see several South African examples above and the South African influence on British jazz was often joyful. 'Jumping' that opens side 2 of Harry Miller's Isipingo's 'Family Affair' comes to mind. In older jazz there's loads of Ellington that just has you beaming - 'Jump for Joy' never fails with me. And the Coleman Hawkins European version of 'Crazy Rhythm' too.

Richard Thompson's Guide to Career Suicide: Chapter 3 - Choosing the Album Cover

Harry Miller - bass; Johnny Dyani - bass

Tavener is always insufferably smug when doing his King Charles Spaniel impressions..

Very powerful commentary on the persecution in Europe at the end of the 30s. Makes very moving use of 5 spirituals from the US.