LIFE reports on 'The New Far-out Beatles' - July 1967

I recently acquired a stack of LIFE magazines from the 1960s. They are a fascinating window on the world as seen by reporters and photo journalists of the time. 

The stories range from graphic coverage of the Vietnam war to sumptuous colour spreads of Sophia Loren and husband Carlo Ponti at their palatial home in Italy. There are special reports on The Warren Commission's findings on the assassination of President Kennedy and a study of the reasons for Marilyn Monroe's suicide. 

Amongst the stories about life in Britain in the 1960s is a piece from July 1967 about The Beatles' new psychedelic look and sound. The cover announces 'The New Far-out Beatles' and the introduction says, "They're grown men now and creating extraordinary musical sounds."

Click to enlarge

The writer, Thomas Thompson, notes that the group has moved such a long way from the music that made them popular, they risk alienating their fans: "They are stepping far ahead of their audience,' but the possibility of losing support "does not bother them in the least."

One evening, at EMI studios on Abbey Road in London's St. John's Wood, Paul and John are explaining a new song to producer George Martin. They have written it that day and want to get it down on tape. The melody is to be called 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'.

"They go through it half a dozen times while Martin nods, quickly familiarising himself with the composition and making notes. I begin to understand the remarkable process of the Beatle music. It begins absolutely from scratch. The Beatles, who can neither write nor read music, are composing even as they record."

The writer profiles the four Beatles with descriptions that fit the popular characterisations. George, while not actually called The Quiet One, is described as the least social of the four, with a particular interest in Eastern spiritualism. Ringo is seen as the "least complex" member and the one with the least musical input.

"Of the four, 26 year old John's life is probably the most complicated. An awesome world of literature, art, philosophy and thought has opened up to him. He reads copiously - everything from Bertrand Russell to Paul Tillich to Allen Ginsberg, and he writes poetry that only he can understand." 

John was fond of creating poems inspired by the nonsense verse of Edward Lear. My brother and I received a Beatles Fan Club flexi-disc for Christmas in 1968. It contains examples of Lennon's nonsense verse. I can still recite them today.

"Paul, 24, the unmarried Beatle, is also the only one who lives in London. He is swept up in London's so-called swinging world, goes to dinner parties and discotheques, and talks about art and football. He is very much aware of the world's troubles and has his own ideas of what it will take to straighten everything out.

"If the politicians would take LSD, there wouldn't be any more war, or poverty or famine."

The album that resulted from these recording sessions, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, had been released the previous month, June 1967 and was immediately hailed as a new creative peak, not just for The Beatles, but pop music in general.

Its influence on the generation of musicians that came through in the 60s was immeasurable. That is why many people still consider it to be their best album. Not only for the songs themselves, but for the unique and groundbreaking way they were recorded.

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters said, "Sgt. Pepper freed a whole generation of young English men and women, given permission to write songs about real things, and having the courage to accept your feelings."

George Martin's view of their creative genius was that "they're always coming up with something new they've just learned; something I wouldn't dream of. They never cease to amaze me."

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Elsewhere on this blog:

My Visit To Abbey Road Studios

The Beatles Escape The Madness to Create Revolver

Sgt. Pepper Is The Beatles - Who Knew?

At Home With the Lennons, 1967

A Night With John Lennon - The Fab Faux at Radio City Music Hall

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

'A Wizard, A True Star' - my all-time favourite record

I love this record. For me, it's the greatest album ever made.

I bought Todd Rundgren's 'A Wizard, A True Star' in 1974 - it was the record that awakened my sense of musical wonder. Although it is now 50 years old, it still sounds, as the author Barney Hoskyns put it: "more bravely futuristic than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in the 21st Century." 

A Wizard, A True Star was a single album that had more musical ideas on it than many artists could muster in a whole career. It ranges across a variety of styles, reflecting a precocious talent channelling everything from The Beatles and Laura Nyro to glam rock, classic soul and Jimi Hendrix.

I came to know Todd Rundgren via the single I Saw The Light, which was a radio play hit in the UK, with its catchy piano melody and George Harrison-like guitar solo.

I decided I wanted to investigate further. I remember being in a record shop in the West End of London, looking up at the albums on display. I don't remember what the price difference was (probably only about 50p) but I couldn’t afford Something / Anything, the album that contained I Saw The Light,  because it was a double. Todd's follow-up album was also on sale and I was attracted to its kaleidoscopic cover.

Having gained an audience for his singer/songwriter-style songs
like 'Hello It's Me', Todd got weird on their asses

So I bought that instead. It’s fair to say the record blew my mind.

From the opening fuzz tones of ‘International Feel’, it was clear that 'A Wizard, A True Star' wasn't going to sound anything like 'I Saw The Light'.  This was exciting though; I had something none of my friends had. My musical universe was about to expand.

I was 15 at the time, a suburban kid eager for just this kind of adventure. If a record can be life changing, this was it.

That first side has 12 tracks on it; it's like watching a fast action cartoon. Todd's influences are all over the shop but if you can keep up with the stylistic shifts and the slightly crazed delivery, it's a wild ride.

The mood and style of side two is in marked contrast; Todd takes a more measured approach, with the middle of the side devoted to his soul medley.

Rolling Stone magazine's review considered the soul medley to be "the highlight of the record, in which Todd plays tribute to the Impressions, the Miracles, the Delphonics and the Capitols. 

"The first three selections, 'I'm So Proud', 'Ooh Baby Baby' and 'La La Means I Love You', feature Rundgren's plaintive singing that conveys a feeling of a kid vocalizing along with the originals late at night, fantasising about crooning to his dream girl," said the review. "The lovely synthesizer and harpsichord arrangements reveal Todd's respect for Stevie Wonder's recent recordings."

Unlike side one, where the tracks come thick and fast, on side two each track is a given the chance to soar. The songs still seque into each other, but do so beautifully, particularly towards the end, as the fuzz guitar of ‘Hungry for Love’ tails off to the solo piano of ‘I Don’t Want To Tie You Down’ which in turn echoes away into the guitar frenzy of ‘Is It My Name’.

The album ends with the majestic ‘Just One Victory’, the national anthem of Utopia as Todd called it.

It's a trip - in less than an hour you've heard a whole world of music. 

John Siomos, Ralph Shuckett, John Siegler & Moogy Klingman
the core band members, at Secret Sound recording AWATS

Rundgren has always made it clear this album was not a solo performance, like much of Something/Anything, where he played all the instruments on three sides of that album.

'Wizard' was recorded at Secret Sound, a small  studio created in a loft apartment in New York that was rented by Todd's keyboard playing friend Mark 'Moogy' Klingman.

Secret Sound was really Todd's creation, said Moogy. He did all the wiring and the equipment installation himself. "That studio was really put together with band aids and bubble gum. It just barely held together.”

A Wizard, A True Star was one of the very first things they recorded at Secret Sound. In Paul Myers' book about Todd's recording sessions in the 1970s, Moogy recalls, "One day Todd said ‘Okay I’m gonna start recording'. He was in the room by himself and he laid down the bass part to “International Feel” and then he started adding on to it. I said wow he’s making some really weird noisy sounds. 

Todd at Sunset Sound

"Then he was overdubbing and it started to sound like something and he said 'OK Moogy, I want you to bring your band in and we're gonna do the track. One of the first tracks we did was 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' but he’d changed it to 'Da Da Dali'.

"We spent the next month or so recording A Wizard, A True Star with Todd as the sole engineer. We didn’t even have an assistant to just watch the levels and bring things down a bit. But that’s how he liked to work. He was a solo guy, he was a hermit nerd.”

Todd's new girlfriend Bebe Buell is sitting on the sofa at the back

The list of session musicians on AWATS includes the Brecker Brothers, Rick Derringer and David Sanborn. Moogy was responsible for bringing in all the musicians, using second keyboard player Ralph Shuckett, bassist John Siegler and drummer John Siomos as the core band. The contribution of Siomos (who later played on Frampton Comes Alive) is notable as he provides the solid groove and highly distinctive snare and tom-tom fills for much of the album’s more soulful and rocked-out moments.

Because he had crammed so much on the record, Todd urged the listener to crank up their stereo to get the full effect. In fact he suggested people tape the record and then crank it up, to avoid having the stylus jump off the vinyl.

The inside gatefold

First issues of the vinyl LP in the US were die-cut, giving the record sleeve an odd shape, and psychedelic images on both sides of the gatefold cover. I have an early US pressing and I have to say the sound is superior to my UK copy. There's more detail audible and you really get a sense of how amazing the mix is, considering the amount of instrumentation and studio effects.

The original album package also included a ‘band aid’ poem written by Todd’s friend Patti Smith, as well as a postcard encouraging purchasers to send their name to be included on a poster, which was given away with Todd's next album.

Patti Smith's beat prose inspired review of 'A Wizard, A True Star' for Creem Magazine in April 1973, described the album as "Rock and roll for the skull. A very noble concept. Past present and tomorrow in one glance. Understanding through musical sensation. Todd Rundgren is preparing us for a generation of frenzied children who will dream in animation."

inner sleeve side one

inner sleeve side two

By the time he came to record 'A Wizard, A True Star', Todd had tasted success with the hit singles Hello It's Me and I Saw The Light. But he set the template for the rest of his career, by not giving the fans or the record company more of the same.  

A Wizard, A True Star was his take on psychedelia, with a dash of rock and soul. And despite all the indulgence, it worked.

That wasn't always the case with Todd; he went on to make some other really good records, but he confounded expectations at every turn, which his fans learned to tolerate, or not.

Glam'd up in '73, playing Clapton's SG

Even in those early days, just before he made AWATS, an appearance on the US music show Midnight Special playing Hello It's Me had his PR advisers tearing their hair out. Todd appeared in full Glam Rock style, with elaborate face make-up and multi-coloured hair. You don't have to camp around, indeed. Commercial suicide, it was the first indication that Todd wouldn't be playing the game the way they wanted. 

On this swing to the left, Todd said: "I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else's benefit. The result was a complete loss of about half of my audience. This became the model for my life after that."

If he'd stuck to releasing just the pretty love songs, he would have been a superstar, no doubt about it. But after AWATS, for every A Dream Goes On Forever, there was a piece of self-indulgent primitive synth bollocks. I still enjoy listening to his 70s albums, skipping the odd track that, even then, was annoyingly indulgent on his part. There have been times when he has unfuriated me in a live situation - ignoring his considerable body of work to play an extended version of Peter Gunn on the 'Liars' tour, for example. It's never been easy being a TR fan, and he is unapologetic about that.  

A Wizard, A True Star, though, is the high point of a prolific musical journey.

The following links include some rare footage from the 1970s and some more recent clips, including some good quality film of the performance of AWATS 10 years ago.

1974 low-fi film of Todd and the AWATS band, playing material from the album including Just One Victory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8gpABtL7sk&fbclid=IwAR26QUOjPxSzryBZTl8vp2-UWuWySGey7aOIljBDUmSSSRVyCNZpCs2-DbY

Here's video of Todd appearing on the Daryl's House show, singing Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel

And here, as part of the 2009 AWATS shows, he performs I Don't Want To Tie You Down

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL THANKS

Also on this blog:

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Steely Dan interviewed in 1975, 1976 and 1977

Here are three interviews with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker from the mid 70s, when they were producing some of their most excellent music. They talk songwriting technique and what they look for in the musicians for each session. And true to form, they never take themselves too seriously. 

Click on the images to read the original articles

Starting in April 1975, at the time of the album Katy Lied, the first interview appeared in the NME and was based on a meeting in California with the writer Richard Cromelin.  Having moved to the west coast from New York, the two are clearly still adjusting to the change in lifestyle.

"It's about 10 or 15 years behind," says Fagen of suburban San Fernando Valley. "We're going to have to relocate. Our heart is still on Second Avenue, and that's what we like to write about. Our lyrics are basically experience combined with a little fantasy."

Becker explained how he and Fagen like to make each song original: "We'll set up a framework, no matter how bizarre it may be. I'll come up with an idea and he'll come up with a scenario and we'll decide what we think the song is about, and which part of the exposition of what is happening is in each verse and get a title together. And no matter how strange the idea may be, we just go along and hope that we can finish the song."

They met at Bard College, where Fagen was "the dean of the pick-up band syndrome". Turns out there were several bands at the college and Fagen was the leader of all of them. Mostly, this appears to have been because the other musicians were not at his level. "We were writing tunes where some of the chords were not triads, and you couldn't use your capo that much. It was hard to get what we wanted in those days, so it didn't come out in utter magnificence," Becker said of the duo's early collaborations.

They tell the story about how the various band members were recruited, especially Denny Dias, who at this point, in 1975, was the only remaining member from the original band. Apparently Fagen and Becker hooked up with Dias's band and "we used to chastise and abuse them," Fagen recalls. "They all quit. So there was Denny and we'd ruined his band. He had no place else to go."

They also explain how, after some initial success with Reelin' In The Years from the first album, 'Can't Buy A Thrill', the threat of obscurity loomed dangerously near. The next single, Show Biz Kids, from the second album 'Countdown To Ecstasy' was, in Fagen's words "a brutal failure". They followed it with an edited version of My Old School, which saw even less action.

The resounding commercial success of the third album 'Pretzel Logic' and the single Rikki Don't Lose That Number, was consolidated in 1974 by a world tour. But Fagen still felt that "We've more or less abandoned hope of being one of the big, important rock and roll groups. Our music is somehow a little too cheesy at times. and turns off the rock intelligentsia for the most part. And at other times it's too bizarre to be appreciated by anybody."

Becker and Fagen also talk about the sound problems during the recording of Katy Lied, that forced them to remix the album and delayed its release. They also address the question of the departure of former member Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter. Skunk, they claim, was only missing from the last album because he was on the road with The Doobie Brothers.

But it's clear they were not content to rely on the same musicians for each album, and wanted to push their session players to stretch themselves. Becker talks about how Rick Derringer was initially freaked out by what was expected of him on the track Chain Lightning. "Then he realised he needed to do something a little different from what he normally does."

click on the image to read the article

June 1976

The NME's Steve Clarke encountered Becker (then still only 26) and Fagen (28) a month after the release of 'The Royal Scam', announcing that the band was ready to tour again, including dates for Britain in 1977 (when in fact, they didn't come to the UK again until 1993!). Becker even talks about who will be in the touring band. Denny Dias is the only one who has the stamina to stay the course with The Dan, he says. "He's willing to indulge us a little more than our old compatriots," said Becker.

Both deny being difficult to work with and lead the interviewer a merry dance when he asks what some of the songs are about. Becker denies Kid Charlemagne is about a dealer, more "a man of science. Someone who makes consciousness expanding substances of the most dramatic sensational type no longer in vogue."

(Indeed, it's about Augustus Owsley Stanley, the famous king of the LSD manufacturers). 

At one point, Donald Fagen states that the lyrics on their recent albums have a bit more maturity. When Clarke suggests Steely Dan songs are intentionally obscure, Becker counters that "it seems to us that people are intentionally dumb." Fagen adds that, "You can only do so much with a song, and because we are probably more literary, we use more literary techniques."

Paul Griffin plays the piano solo on Sign In Stranger and also receives a writer's credit on The Fez. This came about because, according to Fagen, "He wrote the main theme". Becker disputes this, saying "I wouldn't call it the main theme. He wrote a melody that is featured. At least he says he wrote it."  They gave him a credit "in case later on some sort of scandal developed".

'Don't Take Me Alive' is very much a song of these troubled times, writes Clarke about a song that still resonates with the times today. Fagen says of the song: "In Los Angeles and through the world in general, terrorism is a way of life for a lot of people."

They feel little affinity with anything else that is going on in rock in '76, though both express a fondness for Single Bed by Fox. They also enjoy The Eagles, Phoebe Snow and Van Morrison. They say comparisons between Steely Dan and 10cc are ridiculous: "Last time here we were being compared to The Doobie Brothers."

Talking of which, former Dan back-up singer Mike McDonald, now livening up the Doobies, told Clarke that Becker and Fagen wished they were Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. "That's essentially true," says Walter. 

 

 Click on the images to read the articles.

December 1977

Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe writes about the second coming of Steely Dan, following the release of the stylistically different but nonetheless peerless masterwork 'Aja'.

Read the full interview here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-second-coming-of-steely-dan-19771229

 

Here's an interesting interview with producer Gary Katz, about how they got Steve Gadd in to record Aja https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-katz-steely-dan-aja-interview-2022/?fbclid=IwAR2lW4PbW0n72qu0SjboGkM4nM40DrQ5hNNcsG8wmUC0brIjnljhe7F5P28

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOG, PLEASE HIT THE FOLLOW BUTTON ON THE SIDE PANEL
THANKS

Also on this blog:

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

Queen's 1976 Free Concert in Hyde Park

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Five Days of High Drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

From Pinner to LA - Elton's Big Breakthrough, 1970

My Woodstock 50th Anniversary Diary

A Wizard, A True Star - my all-time favourite album

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's Artistic Peak in the 1960s

 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Vegetable Man - where are you?

(NOTE: Since I wrote this, it has been announced that a new boxed set of early Floyd material is being made available, including Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream. All you need is a spare $550!)

Also please note that this blog post has been taken down twice by the service provider under threat of copyright infringement. So if the links don't work, that is why.
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In this age, when any well-known artist's every last demo and throw-away has been dredged up for completist fans to pore over, it remains astonishing to me that there was never an official release of Syd Barrett's last recordings as the leader of Pink Floyd. 

After all this time, why not let those fans who might be interested have a listen?

Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream were both readied for release in 1967, but were rejected by the record company for being too strange and uncommercial.
 
As anyone who has heard them will probably agree, they are indeed raw and somewhat unhinged, but so is 'I Am The Walrus' and that didn't do too badly. Syd's final songs for the Floyd are, regardless of their commercial appeal, an important part of the band's history, illustrating Syd’s state of mind as his excessive LSD intake tipped him over the edge.

The Pink Floyd, as they were known at first

The songs could only have been written by Barrett. Like his earlier material on The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, they reflect a peculiar attitude to the craft of songwriting. Even without the drugs, his songs were oddly formed, combining nursery rhyme lyrics, the 'psychedelic' sounds of the time and added bars where the lyrics didn't scan properly.

It worked - on that first album at least - because the band believed in Syd and encouraged producer Norman Smith to deliver on Syd's Edward Lear-on-acid vision. Meanwhile, The Beatles were in the studio along the corridor at Abbey Road recording their own psychedelic masterpiece, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

After the success of See Emily Play in 1967, the Floyd's management put pressure on Syd, as the principal songwriter, to come up with more hit singles. But Syd's perspective had been warped by his acid intake, and his idea of what would make a good single was a little challenging. 

Spiced with generous helpings of LSD, he wrote Vegetable Man. Was her referring to himself? Or was he just taking the piss out of the need to follow fashion?

In yellow shoes I get the blues
Though I walk the streets with my plastic feet
With my blue velvet trousers, make me feel pink
There's a kind of stink about blue velvet trousers
In my paisley shirt I look a jerk
And my turquoise waistcoat is quite out of sight
But oh oh my haircut looks so bad
Vegetable man where are you?

So I've changed my gear, and I find my knees,
And I covered them up with the latest cut,
And my pants and socks all point in a box,
They don't make long of my nylon socks,
The watch, black watch
My watch with a black face
And a big pin, a little hole,
And all the lot is what I got,
It's what I wear, it's what you see,
It must be me, it's what I am,
Vegetable man

Syd was by this time, October 1967, losing his grip

Syd's increasingly erratic LSD-fuelled behaviour became intolerable for the rest of group. At one concert, it is said he mixed the oily hair ointment Brylcreem over his head to make it look like his head was melting under the stage lights.

Joe Boyd, who produced their first single, Arnold Layne, told how Syd passed him on the way into the UFO club one night, with eyes like impenetrable pools of blackness, a sign of just how far gone he was.

You can see the difference in his appearance in the second part of this See Emily Play clip (3 minutes in) where they are playing Apples and Oranges on the Dick Clark Show in the US. So the story goes, when they were taping one TV show in the US, he refused to move his mouth.

The writing was on the wall for the end of Syd's tenure, when EMI declined to release Vegetable Man or Scream Thy Last Scream as a single. It must have been clear to the band they could not carry on as they were. They were all still very young and inexperienced. More mature heads may have been more sympathetic to Syd, whose mental problems were all too real. 

They claim they didn't actually fire Syd and that bringing in Dave Gilmour wasn't an attempt to force him out. But after yet another night when he was unable or unwilling to perform, they just decided not to pick him up on the way to the next  gig, and that was the end of it.

And they moved on. It's possible the other members of Pink Floyd did not want to see Syd's last songs released. They are a document of one very talented man's descent into madness - as Gilmour said "never to return".

On the other hand, if it's acceptable to dredge up those last desperate recordings of Nick Drake, to reveal the dark despair of a song like Black-Eyed Dog, then I think it's equally valid for the world to hear Syd's last recordings with the Floyd, tracks that reveal not just his mental state, but the culmination of a musical journey.

For me anyway, there was an artistic statement being made here by Syd, however perverse. The band must have been in on it too, because both these tracks are essentially finished items. Acetates were made ready for the single's release. They also recorded a version of Vegetable Man for a BBC session in December 1967.

Syd post-Floyd, couldn't sustain his musical talent

There's no mistaking the psychotic whimsy here - it's the work of someone on the edge of madness; completely uncommercial and obviously for those close to Syd, too raw to be released, ever.

That's the strangest thing, though, for me. After all this time, when compilation after compilation was released, at great expense for the Floyd completists, the release of these tracks was never considered.

Really, no history of Pink Floyd could ever be complete until Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream take their rightful place in the collected works.

Psychedelic Light Show at UFO, 1967 

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Also On This Blog:

Wish You Were Here - A Flawed Diamond 

Pink Floyd On Tour - 1974 and 1977

Reviewing Pink Floyd at the V&A: Their Mortal Remains

March 1973 - 'Dark Side of the Moon' enters the charts

LIFE Magazine reports on the 'New Far-Out Beatles' - June 1967

At home with the Lennons, 1967

Another picture of domesticity, but one that was to come to an end soon afterwards. It is the Spring of 1967 and John Lennon is putting his feet up at the family home he shared with first wife Cynthia and their son Julian in Weybridge, Surrey.  

Surrounded by the traditional framed pictures and ornaments are the tell-tale signs of someone who has turned on to a new way of life, but has not quite let go of the old one. He's reading a copy of the counter-culture newspaper International Times and the cabinets are festooned with promotional stickers for Captain Beefheart's first album.

John's mind was clearly miles away from here. But while Paul McCartney was living in the heart of London, close to Abbey Road studios, John was cut off from all that and was going through what Cynthia described as his 'neurotic phase'. 

She said, "He didn't know where his life was going and he was fed up with being a Beatle. He'd spend a lot of his time in bed with a notepad. When he woke up he'd write a few words down and then maybe go over to the piano. He was basically dropping out. Everything he was doing outside the home was pretty high-powered."

As Derek Taylor attested, John also seemed to spend a lot of time taking acid, even once remarking one morning, as he was driving Taylor in his psychedelic Rolls Royce, that he had it for breakfast. 

1967 marked a real turning point for The Beatles. Having unveiled their crowning achievement as a band, Sgt Pepper, in June, they had shed the final layers of their moptop image and were in full experimental mode musically. 

Though they were forced to keep the whole Beatle gravy train on the rails, they had become disillusioned with it all. They had stopped touring, so it was only in the studio where they were still in any sense a band. 

As it was, they "battled on against overwhelming oddities" through 1967 and 68 with Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album. John's pursuit of something to make sense of his life brought about his fateful meeting with Yoko, the encounter that would lead him to, as he said, "break up a happily married state of boredom".

with son Julian, 1967

As Philip Norman writes in his biography of Lennon: "All four Beatles, kaftaned and beaded, sat at the yogi's feet to listen to his Buddhist wisdom. This was mysticism in an easily digested, tabloid form, instantly appealing to young earthly gods for whom real self-denial was unthinkable. 

"His route to spiritual regeneration involved no special training, no memorising of complex prayers or incantations, and next to no personal inconvenience. It was bliss without the effort. "

John wanted to take Yoko, but since the pilgrimage included wives, he had no choice but to take Cynthia. They stayed in a village on the banks of the River Ganges (Rishikesh) looking towards the snow-flecked Himalayas, though their living conditions were far from spartan. Their bungalows had hot water and western plumbing, and a handful of two-rupee notes bought extra home comforts, from chocolate bars to booze and hash. 

For all the Beatles, it was an enforced slowdown from the lunatic pace that had not let up for seven years, since they left Liverpool for Hamburg and their careers suddenly took off. Day after day, there was nothing to do but sit and think.

"John seemed happy, strumming guitars with Paul and George in the balmy sunshine and even holding hands with Cynthia. She was convinced their difficult marriage was entering a new phase of companionship and mutual tolerance. What she didn't know was that John was all the time receiving postcards from Yoko, which his minders had strict orders to forward to him in plain brown envelopes so she would suspect nothing. Often they consisted of a single thought, in Yoko's tiny, arty script: 'Watch for me - I'm a cloud in the sky."

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THANKS

Also on the blog:

The Beatles retreat from the madness of the road to create Revolver

My Visit To Abbey Road Studios

Laserium - cosmic laser concerts at the Planetarium

In a galaxy far, far away, there existed a time when UK rock music fans could treat themselves to an evening at The London Planetarium for what was described as 'The new cosmic laser rock concert'.

It was a fairly simple concept - take a bunch of rock and classical tracks and set them to entertaining laser visuals. Sit everyone down in a darkened room and project the images on the Planetarium dome. It was, of course, tailor-made for anyone who happened to have smoked a jazz woodbine before the show. The visual effects were probably a bit primitive by modern standards, but it was a novel idea at the time. It was a real treat to hear the music played through a good sound system too.

The music was a mix of American rock (Joe Walsh, the Doobie Brothers), popular classical music (The Planets, the Blue Danube) and generous helpings of prog rock (Yes, ELP, Utopia, Genesis). I went to the London show on two or three occasions in the late 70s and also went to one in New York around the same time (he 'Eye See The Light Show').

The Laserium idea was actually developed in 1973 by an American filmmaker, Ivan Dryer. The Laserium shows played in 46 cities worldwide and were viewed by over 20 million people. The Los Angeles show continued until 2002, a run of 28 years. 

I have managed to find some footage from the original shows, including this one, the opening number of the 'Laserock' show, Automation Horroscope, by Nektar.

 

Although the original shows at the London Planetarium only lasted for a while, from about 1977, the Laserium franchise is still going, though they tend to be held in larger theatres nowadays in special events. Here's some vintage footage of those early Laserium shows and how they were put together.

And here is a radio advert for the London Planetarium show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N51Y1UVvpy8

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'A Wizard, A True Star' - my all-time favourite album

I love this record. For me, it's the greatest album ever made.

I bought Todd Rundgren's 'A Wizard, A True Star' in 1974 - it was the record that awakened my sense of musical wonder. Although it is over 45 years old, it still sounds, as the author Barney Hoskyns puts it: "more bravely futuristic than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in the 21st Century." 

A Wizard, A True Star was a single album that had more musical ideas on it than many artists could muster in a whole career. It ranges across a variety of styles, reflecting a precocious talent channelling everything from The Beatles and Laura Nyro to glam rock, classic soul and Jimi Hendrix.

I came to know Todd Rundgren via the single I Saw The Light, which was a radio play hit in the UK, with its catchy piano melody and George Harrison-like guitar solo.

I decided I wanted to investigate further. I can remember standing looking up at the albums on display in the record shop. I don't remember what the price difference was, but I couldn’t afford Something / Anything, the album that contained 'I Saw The Light',  because it was a double. His follow-up album was also on sale and I was attracted to its kaleidoscopic cover.

Having broken through in the singer songwriter style with 'Hello It's Me'
and 'I Saw The Light', Todd confounded his new audience with his next record

So I bought that instead. It’s fair to say the record blew my mind.

From the opening fuzz tones of ‘International Feel’, it was clear that 'A Wizard, A True Star' wasn't going to sound anything like 'I Saw The Light'.  This was exciting though; I had something none of my friends had. My musical universe was about to expand.

That first side has 12 tracks on it; it's like watching a fast action cartoon. Todd's influences are all over the shop but if you can keep up with the stylistic shifts and the slightly crazed delivery, it's a wild ride. I was 15 at the time, a suburban kid eager for just this kind of adventure. If a record can be life changing, this was it.

The mood and style of side two is in marked contrast; Todd takes a more measured approach, with the middle of the side devoted to his soul medley.

Rolling Stone magazine's review considered the soul medley to be "the highlight of the record, in which Todd plays tribute to the Impressions, the Miracles, the Delphonics and the Capitols. 

"The first three selections, 'I'm So Proud', 'Ooh Baby Baby' and 'La La Means I Love You', feature Rundgren's plaintive singing that conveys a feeling of a kid vocalizing along with the originals late at night, fantasising about crooning to his dream girl," said the review. "The lovely synthesizer and harpsichord arrangements reveal Todd's respect for Stevie Wonder's recent recordings."

Unlike side one, where the tracks come thick and fast, on side two each track is a given the chance to soar. The songs still seque into each other, but do so beautifully, particularly towards the end, as the fuzz guitar of ‘Hungry for Love’ tails off to the solo piano of ‘I Don’t Want To Tie You Down’ which in turn echoes away into the guitar frenzy of ‘Is It My Name’.

The album ends with the majestic ‘Just One Victory’, the national anthem of Utopia as Todd called it.

It's a trip - in less than an hour you've heard a whole world of music. Because he had crammed so much on the record, Todd urged the listener to crank up their stereo to get the full effect. In fact he suggested people tape the record and then crank it up, to avoid having the stylus jump off the vinyl. 

The inside gatefold

First issues of the vinyl LP in the US were dye-cut, giving the record sleeve an odd shape, and psychedelic images on both sides of the gatefold cover. I have an early US pressing and I have to say the sound is superior to my UK copy. There's a lot more detail audible and you really get a sense of how amazing the mix is considering the amount of instrumentation and studio effects there are on a lot of the tracks.

The original album package also included a ‘band aid’ poem written by Todd’s friend Patti Smith, as well as a postcard encouraging purchasers to send their name to be included on a poster, which was given away with Todd's next album.

John Siomos, Ralph Shuckett, John Siegler and Moogy Klingman
the core band members, at Secret Sound recording AWATS

Rundgren has always made it clear this album was not a solo performance, like much of Something/Anything where he played all the instruments on three sides of the album. 'Wizard' was recorded at Secret Sound, a small  studio created in a loft apartment in New York that was rented by keyboard player Mark 'Moogy' Klingman.

Secret Sound was really Todd's creation, said Moogy. He did all the wiring and the equipment installation himself. "That studio was really put together with band aids and bubble gum. It just barely held together.”

A Wizard, A True Star was one of the very first things they recorded at Secret Sound. In Paul Myers' book about Todd's recording sessions in the 1970s, Moogy recalls, "One day Todd said ‘Okay I’m gonna start recording'. He was in the room by himself and he laid down the bass part to “International Feel” and then he started adding on to it. I said wow he’s making some really weird noisy sounds. 

"Then he was overdubbing and it started to sound like something and he said 'OK Moogy, I want you to bring your band in and we're gonna do the track. One of the first tracks we did was 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' but he’d changed it to 'Da Da Dali'.

"We spent the next month or so recording A Wizard, A True Star with Todd as the sole engineer. We didn’t even have an assistant to just watch the levels and bring things down a bit. But that’s how he liked to work. He was a solo guy, he was a hermit nerd.”

The list of session musicians on AWATS includes the Brecker Brothers, Rick Derringer and David Sanborn. Moogy was responsible for bringing in all the musicians. The contribution of drummer John Siomos (who later played on Frampton Comes Alive) is also important, providing the solid groove and highly distinctive snare and tom-tom fills for much of the album’s more soulful and rocked-out moments.

Patti Smith's beat prose inspired review of 'A Wizard, A True Star' for Creem Magazine in April 1973, described the album as "Rock and roll for the skull. A very noble concept. Past present and tomorrow in one glance. Understanding through musical sensation. Todd Rundgren is preparing us for a generation of frenzied children who will dream in animation."

inner sleeve side one

inner sleeve side two

By the time he came to record 'A Wizard, A True Star', Todd had tasted success with the hit singles 'Hello It’s Me' and 'I Saw The Light'. But he set the template for the rest of his career, by not giving the fans or the record company more of the same. 

On this swing to the left, Todd said: "I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else's benefit. The result was a complete loss of about half of my audience. This became the model for my life after that."

 

He went on to make other classic records, confounding expectations at every turn, which his fans learned to tolerate, or not. For me personally, I still listen to his other albums, skipping the odd jarring, self-indulgent  track. There have been times when he has unfuriated me in a live situation - ignoring his considerable body of work to play an extended version of 'Peter Gunn' on the 'Liars' tour, for example. It's never been easy being a TR fan, and he is unapologetic about that. A Wizard, A True Star, though, is the high point of a prolific musical journey.

The following links include some rare footage from the 1970s and some more recent clips, including some good quality film of the performance of AWATS 10 years ago.

1974 low-fi film of Todd and the AWATS band, playing material from the album including Just One Victory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8gpABtL7sk&fbclid=IwAR26QUOjPxSzryBZTl8vp2-UWuWySGey7aOIljBDUmSSSRVyCNZpCs2-DbY

Here's video of Todd appearing on the Daryl's House show, singing Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel

And here, as part of the 2009 AWATS shows, he performs I Don't Want To Tie You Down

 

Sgt. Pepper is The Beatles - who knew?

50 years ago, in June 1967, the Beatles released a concept album, before that term was ever used, of course, but that's what it was. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was their way of distancing themselves from Beatlemania.

As history shows, it was Paul McCartney's idea that the Beatles present themselves as some kind of vaudeville act, as a means of releasing new material that was, clearly, very different from what fans had come to expect.

But was anybody really fooled by this masquerade?  Well, to judge from EMI's advertising, they must have been worried that people were confused about the band's identity. Otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need to remind people who was behind Sgt. Pepper.

"Remember - SPLHCB is The Beatles"

oh thanks, I was wondering who it was...

And consider this: When Sgt Pepper was released on 1st June 1967 (their 8th album) Paul McCartney and George Harrison were still only 24 years old.

Also on this blog:

My Visit To Abbey Road Studios

The Beatles retreat from the madness of the road to create Revolver

How Sgt Pepper disappeared from those lists of classic albums