Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 78

Record label: Smash/Phillips

Produced: Harry Lookofsky, Steve and Bill Jerome

Recorded: World United Studios, New York; December 1965, January, March and November 1966; Mercury Studios, New York; January 1967

Released: February 1967

Chart peaks: None (UK) 67 (US)

Personnel: Michael Brown (k, v); Steve Martin (v); Jeff Winfield (g); Tom Finn (v, b); George Cameron (v, g, d); Warren David (d); George Hirsch (g); Hugh McCracken (g); Rick Brand (g)

Track listing: Pretty Ballerina (S); She May Call You Up Tonight (S); Barterers And Their Wives (S); I’ve Got Something On My Mind (S); Let Go Of You Girl; Evening Gown; Walk Away Renee (S); What Do You Know; Shadows Breaking Over My Head; I Haven’t Got The Nerve (S); Lazy Day (S)

Running time: 28.50

Current CD: Their work is collected on the CD There’s Gonna Be A Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966–1969 (1992).

Further listening: See above

Further reading: www.members.aol.com/bocad/lb_main.htm (fan site); www.leftbanke.nu (official)

Download: Not currently legally available

‘Baroque-rock’: this was the label attached to a young band who emerged in 1966 with a new sound on a Top 5 debut single. The Left Banke came together around keyboard player Michael Brown while he was working at the tiny Manhattan recording studio owned by his father, the arranger and producer Harry Lookofsky. The only trained musician in the group, Brown was just 16 when he wrote Walk Away Renee.

Inspired by his unrequited adoration of Renee Fladen, Tom Finn’s girlfriend, the lyrical mixture of heartfelt yearning and salvaged pride displayed an astonishing maturity. As Brown later recalled: ‘It’s not a love song about possession – it’s about loving someone enough to set them free.’ The song’s production was equally striking (amazing for 1965, when it was done): Lookofsky’s unorthodox arrangement kept the guitars low in the mix, and the string quartet allowed Martin’s distinctive voice and Brown’s mellifluous harpsichord to shine.

Defying the custom of its time, the subsequent album was far more than just a vehicle for the group’s hits (follow-up single Pretty Ballerina, also inspired by Fladen and arguably even more beautiful, had reached number 15 in the US charts), being composed entirely of originals, which were driven for the most part by Brown’s old-master keyboards. Barterers And Their Wives was, perhaps, the most literally baroque, but the songs also encompassed slow ballads (the aching Shadows Breaking Over My Head), country (What Do You Know) and brash fuzz guitar (Lazy Day).

With a raft of catchy, if rather melancholy, pop tunes, ‘English-style’ long hair and a look that critic Lillian Roxon described as ‘almost too pretty for rock’, The Left Banke looked destined for greatness. But the album, recorded piecemeal over a year, was released too late to capitalise on their early success and Brown, disillusioned with touring, left to form a rival outfit under the same name. When both Left Bankes released singles simultaneously, writs began to fly and radio stations quickly shunned the band. Subsequent recordings, including an enchanting second LP, produced diminishing returns and by 1969 the band had dispersed to other projects.