Arthur Lee v Nick Drake v Syd Barrett

[Quaco]

Other people to avoid from the pages of the Recycler: people who mention Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, or jazz (who aren't actually jazz players).

[Bent Fabric]

Other people to avoid from the pages of the Recycler: people who mention Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, or jazz (who aren't actually jazz players).

There is a much venerated, eternally cultish, freakishly talented veteran of American Music™ (loved as much by yer trad arr houserockin' blandos as he is by Shaggs...or even Syd enthusiasts) who introduced to me the following phrase (describing audiences): "They're liking it wrong."

It's real. Certainly something I feel resonating even in my own modest musical life.

I've known the musicians who absolutely believe themselves to be "blowin' Trane" who couldn't find the approximate neighborhood of a sympathetic tempo or groove if you bribed them. You'll never be able to tell them that they themselves aren't Can or Hawkwind, but...here we are.

The Who? Yeah - as great as anything that I'll ever love, but...I've mostly seen that badge worn by people who stopped at the parka and never even made it to "Sparks".

Syd-era Floyd will always nourish me as the direly needed antithesis of a certain "ambient toxic drabness", but there's really no arguing with the basic premise that the greater/more singular the art, the more warily one might consider claims of influence.

[Quaco]

Basically, Davey's wrong.

[Sneelock]

well, sorry to bring influence into it but only half into it ("half the equation")
I like Syd's thing. I know it's not for everybody but it's for me.
I do like that it's obviously also more than a passing influence on artists I like ( I'm thinking Bowie and Robyn Hitchcock mainly)
I'm not a musician so I don't have to deal with anybody trying to get into the Sneelock Experience and souring me on their influences.
lucky me.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Basically, Davey's wrong.

You bastard!

[naughty boy]

Other people to avoid from the pages of the Recycler: people who mention Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, or jazz (who aren't actually jazz players).

[Neige]

... terse to the point of coaninanity ...

Now that made me chuckle on this bright morning.... er, carry on!

[Goat Boy]

You still hear Syd’s influence. When I first met the lass she tried to turn me onto a band called Tap Tap and when I listened to them I was like, “that’s totally Syd!”.

Sometimes it’s fairly subtle and not necessarily a direct influence, like the use of an exaggerated English accent to emphasise nationality and Otherness. Sometimes it’s straight out homage (Far Out on Parklife). Sometimes it’s attempts to create pop music that bounces around with the same kind of free spirited capriciousness Syd seemed to effortlessly channel (I remember MGMT specifically talking about this in relation to their second album....DON'T LAUGH). Sometimes it’s indie artists who use the solo stuff as some kind of template/inspiration and try and emulate that one take, free form, stream of consciousness thing with predictably contrived results. I can understand the appeal of course. There is something so singular about his use of melodies and chords and rhythms that they seem to possess a strange kind of unfathomable internal logic, like one of pops greatest puzzle boxes. Some people really want to take that golden watch apart and see how all the pieces were put together but you can’t do that to sui generis of course.

The obvious undercurrent of unease and instability, the light and shade, is predictably even harder it copy. I mean appreciate the effort and it’s nice to hear Syd’s spirit being kept alive somehow but, yeah, mostly file under: “folly”

[naughty boy]

Oh, there's a BIG Syd influence on those 'English' Blur albums. 'Ernold Same'? fuck off!

and yeah, 'Far Out' is immediately recognisable as a kind of pastiche of 'The Gnome' or something. That's an example of it being done well, to my mind.

and that first MGMT album has all sorts of child-like melodic stuff that puts you in mind of Piper.

There's so much more - a lot of those Sarah bands stole a lot, you heard his style everywhere around 1986.

('dismantling a golden watch' is a great analogy, D!)

[Bent Fabric]

This was one that always struck me as deliberately (and successfully) "keeping that spirit alive".

And then, of course, more literally, perhaps - there's bands like Italy's Jennifer Gentle or Chicago's own Grimble Grumble (God bless them both) whose goals are admirable enough, if not a bit "Surely, you've got something of your own to offer, as well."

[fange]

Other people to avoid from the pages of the Recycler: people who mention Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, or jazz (who aren't actually jazz players).

[fange]

This was one that always struck me as deliberately (and successfully) "keeping that spirit alive".

And then, of course, more literally, perhaps - there's bands like Italy's Jennifer Gentle or Chicago's own Grimble Grumble (God bless them both) whose goals are admirable enough, if not a bit "Surely, you've got something of your own to offer, as well."

One of the best groups of recent times, so many strings to their bows.

[Darkness_Fish]

Just when I'd forgotten why I used to detest Supergrass, along comes a handy reminder.

[fange]

[jimboo]

Oh, there's a BIG Syd influence on those 'English' Blur albums. 'Ernold Same'? fuck off!

and yeah, 'Far Out' is immediately recognisable as a kind of pastiche of 'The Gnome' or something. That's an example of it being done well, to my mind.

and that first MGMT album has all sorts of child-like melodic stuff that puts you in mind of Piper.

There's so much more - a lot of those Sarah bands stole a lot, you heard his style everywhere around 1986.

('dismantling a golden watch' is a great analogy, D!)

I'll stick with what they did rather than who was influenced by them. I don't like or gravitate to bands reacting to loaded questions from interviewers "there's a kind of early barrett feel to track two"
"Oh yeah , definitely"

Oasis blow that kind of talk out of the water.

They all were and are pretty unique , who ya dig is who ya dig. What they did on their records are the most important thing.

Great post from Dougie (golden watch ,great).

[The Slider]

1. Nick Drake You Fuckwits
2. Syd Barrett might should be #1 because Piper


3. Arthur Lee
Not that there’s anything wrong with that

This.
Saves me typing

Not one album by either Art or Syd sounds anywhere near as rich and full-paletted as Bryter Layter

[The Modernist]

Arthur Lee for me.

[clive gash]

On reflection in has to be Kate Bush.

[naughty boy]

'Roger' lost it for Syd here

[The Modernist]

People thought they were voting for Waters?