Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 177

Record label: Polydor

Produced: Felix Pappalardi

Recorded: De Lane Lea, London; April–June 1969

Released: September 1969

Chart peaks: 6 (UK) 55 (US)

Personnel: Jack Bruce (v, p, b, o, c, g); Harry Beckett (t); Henry Lowther (t); Dick Heckstall-Smith, Art Themen (s); Chris Spedding (g); Jon Hiseman (d); John Marshall (d); Felix Pappalardi (v, pc, g); John Mumford (tb); L’Angelo Misterioso (g); Andrew Johns (e)

Track listing: Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out Of Tune; Theme For An Imaginary Western; Tickets To Water Falls; Weird Of Hermiston; Rope Ladder To The Moon; The Ministry Of Bag; He The Richmond; Boston Ball Game, 1969; To Isengard; The Clearout

Running time: 31.47

Current CD: Polydor 0656032 adds: Ministy Of Bag (demo); Weird Of Hermiston (alternate mix); The Clearout (alternate mix); Ministry Of Bag (alternate mix)

Further listening: Of the three jazz-influenced albums Bruce released after Cream, his own favourite is Harmony Row (1971); ‘I just sat down at the piano, with a joint, and there it was,’ he declared.

Further reading: www.jackbruce.com

Download: iTunes; HMV Digital

Only a rock superstar at the peak of his power, as Bruce was after the success of Cream, could have taken a record like Songs For A Tailor into the charts, for the music on the album is uncompromising, uncommercial, contemporary jazz fusion. Bruce recruited some of Britain’s most creative young jazz musicians, all of whom play scintillatingly, with techniques light years ahead of the average rock musician. The songs were all co-written by Bruce and lyricist Pete Brown.

‘My songs are usually written using the piano and the music tends to come first,’ explains Bruce. ‘It’s a question of getting into Jack’s mind,’ offers Brown. ‘Some of the songs took an awfully long time – The Clearout and Weird Of Hermiston took two and a half years before we got what we wanted.’

One of the album’s most acclaimed songs is the cryptic Theme From An Imaginary Western. ‘The words were about the Graham Bond band,’ clarifies Brown, referring to one of Bruce’s early outfits. ‘I saw them as a mob of cowboys and pioneers. I was always amazed at the camaraderie between the early groups but now and then you’d get explosive situations between them, just like in the Westerns.’

There is no title song, the album title being a dedication to clothing designer Jeannie Franklyn, who died in the Fairport Convention van crash.

‘The day she was killed I got a letter from her which said all the little things she always used to say, like, “Sing some high notes for me,”’ recalls Bruce.

Colosseum drummer Jon Hiseman, who plays on the album, still enthuses about it. ‘It was the best album I ever made. Jack was a genius: he plays the best bass in the world, he’s a magnificent singer and he writes wonderful music. But I think the reason he never was a major star after Cream was Pete Brown’s lyrics are too obscure for a popular audience.’ Bruce seems unconcerned. ‘I’ve never wanted extreme commercial success. Cream was an accidental thing that was such a huge success I don’t have to worry about money, so I’ve been able to concentrate on what I want to do.’