Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Neige » 02 Aug 2021, 11:30

toomanyhatz wrote:... former Nashville Teens keyboardist John Hawken (most famous for, in addition to being a fabulous classically trained pianist who played beautifully on the first Renaissance album, being hung out a window by Sharon Osbourne's father)...


First time I hear this story! :shock: :shock:

That first Renaisance album indeed is a thing of wonder.


toomanyhatz wrote:what might be my favorite Wakeman solo piece ever...


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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby trans-chigley express » 02 Aug 2021, 15:06

toomanyhatz wrote:Image

And now, for your complete one-stop Hudson-Ford evaluation! The above is new, and is probably all you need. There's one post-A&M album that I'm aware of, but it's not very good as I remember, and is hard to find on top of that.

Fresh from the hugeness of "Part of the Union," the newly-formed duo left Strawbs, signed a multi-album deal, and in short order had their first (and only) top ten hit. All parts allegedly played by the duo, despite the hilariously bad mime here:



I've always loved it, from the percussive bass to the simple four-on-the-floor beat to the Lennon vocal imitation, complete with reverbed "ah-ah-ah." It probably wouldn't have worked as well in the context of Strawbs.

There is plenty on the first album, Nickelodeon, however, that would, from the pub singalong "Hello, I Thought You Were Dead" to the Cousins-esque epic "Dark Lord" (with rather sillier lyrics than Cousins would allow to make the cut, probably), to the Hudson eastern influence that informs the lovely "Solitude."

The second, Free Spirit, is more of the same combo of folkie melodies, Beatlish pop and prog moves. It did produce one minor hit. it's...nice:



The last, Worlds Collide, muddled by some vague science-fiction concepts, is a lot less interesting, but it does have this credible Bee Gees imitation:



The duo also had a couple future hits in other guises, as well as occasionally (mostly separately) returning to the Strawbs fold in the ensuing decades. But more on that later.


Those Hudson-Ford songs are much better than I'd expected. I'd be interested on picking that set up if I see it.

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby trans-chigley express » 02 Aug 2021, 15:12

Neil Jung wrote:
I didn’t think much of Cousins solo album apart from Blue Angel. I’ve owned it for decades. Maybe I’ll give it another play.

I've never heard the album except for Blue Angel and the title track which appear on the Halcyon Days compilation, both of which I really like. The album seems never to have been reissued on CD.

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Neige » 02 Aug 2021, 15:18

trans-chigley express wrote:
Neil Jung wrote:
I didn’t think much of Cousins solo album apart from Blue Angel. I’ve owned it for decades. Maybe I’ll give it another play.

I've never heard the album except for Blue Angel and the title track which appear on the Halcyon Days compilation, both of which I really like. The album seems never to have been reissued on CD.


It has, twice, I have a copy on Cousins' own label Witchwood Media.

A remaster with 5 bonus tracks came out on Esoteric in 2019

https://www.discogs.com/Dave-Cousins-Two-Weeks-Last-Summer/master/474500
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby trans-chigley express » 02 Aug 2021, 15:22

Neige wrote:
trans-chigley express wrote:
Neil Jung wrote:
I didn’t think much of Cousins solo album apart from Blue Angel. I’ve owned it for decades. Maybe I’ll give it another play.

I've never heard the album except for Blue Angel and the title track which appear on the Halcyon Days compilation, both of which I really like. The album seems never to have been reissued on CD.


It has, twice, I have a copy on Cousins' own label Witchwood Media.

A remaster with 5 bonus tracks came out on Esoteric in 2019

https://www.discogs.com/Dave-Cousins-Two-Weeks-Last-Summer/master/474500

The Esoteric reissue completely passed me by, I'd be interested in getting that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Mike Boom » 02 Aug 2021, 19:04

Been listening to "Two Weeks Last Summer", really enjoying it, way better than I remember it, the version of Blue Angel is better for the inclusion of Wakeman but I do miss Mary Hopkins background vocal on the end section. I really like the two "rocking" tracks Going Home and The Actor, tho I think I prefer the alternative mix of the The Actor without the tremolo on the vocal. Great record.
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby toomanyhatz » 02 Aug 2021, 19:24

Neige wrote:
First time I hear this story! :shock: :shock:

That first Renaisance album indeed is a thing of wonder.


https://bournemouthbeatboom.wordpress.c ... -hawken-2/

Many stories have been written about the Nashville Teens colourful manager Don Arden over the years. How he pocketed most of the money belonging to The Small Faces, the time he stubbed a lighted cigar out on the forehead of Clifford Davis after he tried to poach The Move and the infamous incident where he hung his rival, Robert Stigwood, off a fourth-floor balcony by his legs for daring to lure away The Small Faces. John Hawken went through a similar ordeal to Stigwood and lived to tell the tale. John had gone to Arden’s office in Carnaby Street to collect a cheque for twelve hundred pounds, but noticed the amount written on the cheque was for a much less hundred and twenty and tossed it back in disgust. Before he could draw breath, the burly impresario jumped up from his desk, grabbed John by the throat, edged him towards an open window and thrust him half way out while screaming “You’re going down John”. After Arden had regained his composure, he hauled the relieved pianist back in. A shaken Hawken grabbed the cheque, made his excuses and beat a hasty retreat, thankful for the miserly hundred and twenty quid and his life.
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby toomanyhatz » 03 Aug 2021, 01:15

Image

It's a schizophrenic album, but it's ultimately a great one that holds a unique place in their history.

As I say above, Cousins made a promise to be more collaborative. He kept his word. Every other band member has, at very least, one song that they contributed mightily to the creation of.

As I also say above, that's not always a good thing. "Sad Young Man" by Coombes, and "It's Just Love" by Lambert are perfectly competent rock songs with very lean and strong playing. Placed second and third on the album, they really derail it. They don't fit the feel of the rest of it, but don't provide a helpful distraction either. They're conceptually completely different. They seem like outtakes from another session.

Outside of that (ironically - one uses that word a lot when talking about Strawbs), it's the least compromising record of their career.

The opening suite, "Autumn," is a John Hawken tour-de-force, from the opening synth groove that allegedly got some R&B play (it'd be a great hip-hop sample!) to the lovely piano flourishes that bedeck "The Winter Long," one of those great folkie/churchy Cousins melodies that never fail to uplift. The multi-part prog epic would become a recurring style for the next several years.

After the obligatory 'band member' songs, however, it heads in a somewhat darker direction.

Cousins' newest love, a young lady named Sara Charles, was the main inspiration, the 'heroine' of the title (NOT a drug reference, Cousins was and is quick to assure). Judging by the lyrics, all was not hunky dory in paradise.

I think it's safe to say, that with the possible exception of Robert Wyatt and maybe Peter Hammill, no prog artist has ever used a bed of mellotron and synths in the service of such confessional and personal work. Despite the fact that it is indeed a decidedly progressive album (Rolling Stone named it #44 on their all-time progressive top 50) its spiritual cousins (hah! Pun intended!) are, rather than Yes, ELP, or even other Strawbs albums, things like Plastic Ono Band, Big Star 3rd, or (to use a folkier reference point) Joni Mitchell's Blue. As a friend who is now a music supervisor by profession once said, "you can hear the blood dripping on that one."

The single was their last (minor) hit in the UK. Not as bleak as the remainder of the album, but tinged with sadness. His new love is also the "young magician" in this song. The unsuccessful 'comedian' is of course Cousins himself:



The bonus tracks on the reissue are probably the least interesting of any of the A&M albums. The best way to hear the album is to listen to side two by itself, in one sitting, from start to finish.

The title track is a heady mix - the return of the electric banjo, and some remarkably skillful and dramatic mellotron playing, particularly impressive as Hawken was unfamiliar with the instrument previous to its recording.



"Midnight Sun" is the Cronk co-write. This is the beginnings of the Cousins/Cronk team, which would shortly become very common. I'm assuming Cronk wrote the music and Cousins the lyrics, as it seems like another deep dive into his psyche. "The dark night sheds no light/it merely serves a warning," sings Cousins. For a man in love, he seems to be in a rather dark place. "I have loved, I have lost" is another key line. Is he celebrating having loved, or obsessed by the possibility, once again, of loss? The answer is, of course, both.



The darkness really takes over on "Round and Round," however. It's a remarkable song for a band that a mere couple years previous was acoustic-based and given to pastoralism. Behind a bleak electronic landscape that is more Kraftwerk or Suicide than it is Yes or ELP, Cousins waxes cynical about the failure of the hippie revolution, with a pessimistic view of both his own, and the world's future. No one is spared, least of all himself:



Lambert also composed the ending "Heroine's Theme," another powerful Strawbs riff that grows out of Cousins' plea "Lay a Little Light on Me." Once again, I hear a rather considerable Beatles influence in it, right down to the Lennonesque pleading vocals and the backwards tracks at the end (the refrain of "Shine on Silver Sun" backwards). Again, one of his better singing performances.



If Cousins was feeling like the light was breaking through given a more stable band situation, it surely doesn't show. The light would reemerge soon enough, but the band was irrevocably changed. Canada and the US, where they'd become underground heroes rather than declining hitmakers, would become the focus for the next several years.
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby C » 03 Aug 2021, 14:10

toomanyhatz wrote:Image

It's a schizophrenic album, but it's ultimately a great one that holds a unique place in their history.

As I say above, Cousins made a promise to be more collaborative. He kept his word. Every other band member has, at very least, one song that they contributed mightily to the creation of.

As I also say above, that's not always a good thing. "Sad Young Man" by Coombes, and "It's Just Love" by Lambert are perfectly competent rock songs with very lean and strong playing. Placed second and third on the album, they really derail it. They don't fit the feel of the rest of it, but don't provide a helpful distraction either. They're conceptually completely different. They seem like outtakes from another session.

Outside of that (ironically - one uses that word a lot when talking about Strawbs), it's the least compromising record of their career.

The opening suite, "Autumn," is a John Hawken tour-de-force, from the opening synth groove that allegedly got some R&B play (it'd be a great hip-hop sample!) to the lovely piano flourishes that bedeck "The Winter Long," one of those great folkie/churchy Cousins melodies that never fail to uplift. The multi-part prog epic would become a recurring style for the next several years.

After the obligatory 'band member' songs, however, it heads in a somewhat darker direction.

Cousins' newest love, a young lady named Sara Charles, was the main inspiration, the 'heroine' of the title (NOT a drug reference, Cousins was and is quick to assure). Judging by the lyrics, all was not hunky dory in paradise.

I think it's safe to say, that with the possible exception of Robert Wyatt and maybe Peter Hammill, no prog artist has ever used a bed of mellotron and synths in the service of such confessional and personal work. Despite the fact that it is indeed a decidedly progressive album (Rolling Stone named it #44 on their all-time progressive top 50) its spiritual cousins (hah! Pun intended!) are, rather than Yes, ELP, or even other Strawbs albums, things like Plastic Ono Band, Big Star 3rd, or (to use a folkier reference point) Joni Mitchell's Blue. As a friend who is now a music supervisor by profession once said, "you can hear the blood dripping on that one."

The single was their last (minor) hit in the UK. Not as bleak as the remainder of the album, but tinged with sadness. His new love is also the "young magician" in this song. The unsuccessful 'comedian' is of course Cousins himself:



The bonus tracks on the reissue are probably the least interesting of any of the A&M albums. The best way to hear the album is to listen to side two by itself, in one sitting, from start to finish.

The title track is a heady mix - the return of the electric banjo, and some remarkably skillful and dramatic mellotron playing, particularly impressive as Hawken was unfamiliar with the instrument previous to its recording.



"Midnight Sun" is the Cronk co-write. This is the beginnings of the Cousins/Cronk team, which would shortly become very common. I'm assuming Cronk wrote the music and Cousins the lyrics, as it seems like another deep dive into his psyche. "The dark night sheds no light/it merely serves a warning," sings Cousins. For a man in love, he seems to be in a rather dark place. "I have loved, I have lost" is another key line. Is he celebrating having loved, or obsessed by the possibility, once again, of loss? The answer is, of course, both.



The darkness really takes over on "Round and Round," however. It's a remarkable song for a band that a mere couple years previous was acoustic-based and given to pastoralism. Behind a bleak electronic landscape that is more Kraftwerk or Suicide than it is Yes or ELP, Cousins waxes cynical about the failure of the hippie revolution, with a pessimistic view of both his own, and the world's future. No one is spared, least of all himself:



Lambert also composed the ending "Heroine's Theme," another powerful Strawbs riff that grows out of Cousins' plea "Lay a Little Light on Me." Once again, I hear a rather considerable Beatles influence in it, right down to the Lennonesque pleading vocals and the backwards tracks at the end (the refrain of "Shine on Silver Sun" backwards). Again, one of his better singing performances.



If Cousins was feeling like the light was breaking through given a more stable band situation, it surely doesn't show. The light would reemerge soon enough, but the band was irrevocably changed. Canada and the US, where they'd become underground heroes rather than declining hitmakers, would become the focus for the next several years.


A fantastic album - great review too

Thanks



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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby ChrisB » 03 Aug 2021, 14:40

My favourite by a mile. Can't add anything to what's already been said

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby toomanyhatz » 03 Aug 2021, 19:34

Image

The darkness must have lifted at least a bit.

Their next album did absolutely everything it was supposed to. Their most successful album ever in the US, it actually got into the lower rungs of the top 50. It was top twenty in Canada. The UK was losing interest, but thanks to ceaseless touring in the US and Canada for much of the past year, they were now stars in North America - or at least as close as they were going to get.

For me, it's the worst of their A&M albums (praising with faint damnation; I really like them all), the one I had the hardest time finding when first discovering them (again irony; if it really sold upwards of 100,000 copies, as its chart position would seem to dictate, why did so few of them show up in used bins? Maybe people held onto them?)

The others' songs seem less out of place as the album is pretty eclectic even among Cousins' numbers, no underlying theme is evident enough to be distracted from, and there's little evident tension in the making or promotion of it. Yet irony lurks again (as it always does). Perhaps because it was on the verge of catapulting them into the upper rungs of prog bands, but didn't ultimately do so, it pretty much shattered their relationship with A&M. But more on that later.

It begins with what is probably my favorite of Cousins' multi-part prog epics, really the ultimate distillation of their combination of eclecticism and grandeur, and electronic textures and delicate acoustic guitar. The 'needle' mentioned here is also not a drug reference - apparently he is speaking of a gothic looking building viewed on tour in the American south.



There's also a second multi-part epic, but the other Cousins songs are more poppy, including this one with evidence that Cousins had become one hell of an electric rhythm guitarist:



Coombes' track is relegated to the bonus tracks (it's fine), Cronk's first band composition, "Starshine/Angel Wine" is another solid riff-rocker, Hawken provides the lovely instrumental lead in to Cousins' sentimental "You and I (When We Were Young)." This time, though, Lambert has what I think is the most interesting non-Cousins track:



You brought a new kind of sound into my life? Who's he talking to here? Could be a typical love song, but I hear it as a plea to Cousins to welcome Lambert's 'rocker' side to shine through without compromise. Is that a crazy thing to think? Makes the song more fun to listen to if I hear it that way, but the heavy riffing and Hawken's delicate electric piano also help.

The touring continued worldwide. Their international reputation grew. They had a solid band all of whom contributed individually to the collective without much evident stress. At least for the moment, it was as "on top of the world" as they would ever be.

Because it's Strawbs we're talking about, it wasn't built to last, and would once again come crashing down soon enough.
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Mike Boom » 04 Aug 2021, 16:15

Both "Ghosts" and "Hero and Heroine" are firm favourites. The title tracks to both are superb. "Hero and Heroine" , the track really blew me away when I first heard it, and it still does in a lot of ways, the mellotron, the vocal , the lyrics, its truly a barnstormer.
"Ghosts" may even be the stronger album but the highs aren't quite as high as "H and H". "Grace Darling" is another highlight on "Ghosts". They certainly were on some kind of peak at this point, both brilliant albums.

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Hightea » 04 Aug 2021, 20:18

Mike Boom wrote:Both "Ghosts" and "Hero and Heroine" are firm favourites.

me too. Both lineup and songs were fantastic during this period.

In 2004 the Strawbs H & H lineup reformed and was luck enough to see them at NEARfest were they played most of H & H and plenty off Ghosts including the title tract one of my favorite Strawbs tunes.

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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Neil Jung » 05 Aug 2021, 11:32

Ghosts is a great album. I’m astonished you think it their weakest on A&M. How could you not even mention Grace Darling?!
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby toomanyhatz » 05 Aug 2021, 19:22

Neil Jung wrote:Ghosts is a great album. I’m astonished you think it their weakest on A&M. How could you not even mention Grace Darling?!


Part of what makes them so great, imo. What's classic to one Strawbs fan might not be to another. I love the mellotron chorus on that one, but I've never thought it one of his better songs. And it's always bothered me how he sings "darlin' I love YA." And "The Life Auction" is a bit of a muddle to me, nowhere near as good as the title track. Not sure I'm into TWO multi-part epics on the same album.

That said, some of it's great. I did say I like all the A&M albums a lot. That's just the one where the flaws stand out the most to me (well, other than I wish H&H would've left off the non-Cousins songs).
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby toomanyhatz » 05 Aug 2021, 20:00

Image

In my humble opinion, this is easily the most underrated record of Strawbs' career. But it didn't get made under the best of circumstances.

Strawbs' management had decided, after the one more album that they were contractually obligated to deliver, that they would end their relationship with A&M. A&M, after suggesting a few outside producers for that last album (David Kershenbaum, who had produced Joan Baez's Diamonds and Rust and would go on to produce Tracy Chapman, Joe Jackson, and Duran Duran among many others was one of the more interesting ones), basically said 'don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out' once they saw negotiations were getting nowhere and, as a result, pretty much did zero to promote the album. While the two factions were arguing back and forth, John Hawken, a huge part of their two previous albums and as valuable a musical partner as Cousins ever had, saw the writing on the wall and bailed. So they had to soldier on with the remaining quartet, a disengaged label, and a music audience starting to stray a bit from the kind of long epics of the last few albums.

So Cousins, left to his own devices, got back to the basics and delivered a very strong set of songs. I haven't checked to be sure, since they have so many albums, but I'm pretty sure it's still the only one on which every song is under five minutes long. No multi-part prog epics, no ballad-style story songs, and no extended soloing. The others still get a song each but maybe because it's such a song-oriented album, they don't stand out as much. And actually, Cronk's "The Promised Land" is almost undoubtedly his best solo composition for Strawbs, and Lambert's "Little Sleepy" is a nice greasy piece of Stones-ish rock. So they're not bad songs, and this time, not so out of place.

Left without a keyboardist, the have several guest on the album, most notably If's Jon Mealing, who plays the moody organ on this:



And the wonderful piano on this, an older song remade into the jazziest thing they ever did:



And back in the fold for one song (and apparently recorded stark naked, bare-assed on the piano bench) was Rick Wakeman.

I don't think his nakedness or his keyboard playing is the reason for it, but I have a deep love for this song that surpasses all reason. Maybe because Cousins sounds like he's having fun, even breaking into a brief laugh at one point. Or maybe because the lyrics and music are both so playful. It's a timely reminder that, as grandiose and 'huge' as he can be, he could also be remarkably down-to-earth.



There's also two rather explicit songs about the return of Cousins' 'heroine' to his life, and one cranky bluegrass number sung by Lambert about him moving to the country with her and her mother.

But it's this, one of his bleakest songs ever (and there's some stiff competition!) that's the biggest attention-getter. It's also the first hint that Cousins might have some notion of leaving it all behind, as he would do in a few years, at least temporarily.



It's a weird record. One review said it sounded like ten different bands, which isn't far off the mark. Eclectist that I am, I tend to lean into that idea. But it's not for everyone. Cousins barely mentions it in the book other than to say he can't listen to most of it.

To me, it's some of his best songwriting, particularly lyrically. But I get why it holds bad memories. He never wanted to leave A&M, and what was to come tends to justify those feelings. And once again, there's a huge sense of 'what if.'
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby C » 05 Aug 2021, 23:17

toomanyhatz wrote:Image

In my humble opinion, this is easily the most underrated record of Strawbs' career.


Agreed - it's an excellent very good good album




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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Neil Jung » 06 Aug 2021, 09:29

Nomadness? My least favourite by a mile. Really don’t like Tokyo Rose or Little Sleepy. Golden Salamander and Hanging In The Gallery are the only decent tracks as far as I can recall.
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby Neil Jung » 06 Aug 2021, 10:12

The two unissued tracks on Spotify are better than most of the actual album.
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Re: Strawbs & the Many Lives of Dave Cousins

Postby C » 06 Aug 2021, 12:16

Neil Jung wrote:Nomadness? My least favourite by a mile.


Yes agreed - all the others are better but it is not as dire as many said/say.

I'll play it again today, admittedly I don't play it often, and reappraise

See above amendment!




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