Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week
Transcripts from the everyday world of music by Martin Colyer
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Currently, of course, everyone is home, but here’s the story of Charlie and Peter, in Peter’s words:
“I met Charlie out at the Vapors Club, in Memphis, back in 1970. He was fairly obscure. So I go out there and I met Charlie and his wife, Margaret Ann, and I just never met anybody who I liked more on first acquaintance. I just loved them both — one of those things where you feel like you’ve really connected. Between sets, Charlie would tell me about growing up outside of Forrest City and growing up in the church; the guilt he felt and the depression he suffered, his drinking. Charlie was not an “up” person. He once said, “I don’t know what it is, I just don’t dig happy songs.” And Margaret Ann, during the sets, would tell me the same stories but in a more rounded, expressive way. She was a brilliant woman as well.
Then I wrote it up for “Feel Like Going Home,” and nobody had done any interviews with Charlie at that point. And as I wrote it, I had the terrible feeling that these two people who I’d really liked so much, that I was never going to see them again. The chapter seems mild by today’s standards, but I had to tell the truth, and it was terrible. Shortly after it was published, the secretary of the publisher called me up and said Charlie Rich just called and ordered 35 copies, one for everyone in his family. Not long after, Charlie told me, “The thing about it was, it was the truth. It hurt, it really hurt, but it was the truth.”
A couple of years later he invited me to New York. I hadn’t seen him in a while and he was playing at Max’s Kansas City. “Behind Closed Doors” had just come out and he was on a publicity tour. And he says, “I got a surprise for you, man.” And I said, “Great, I love surprises.” Which is not at all the case, but what are you gonna say? And so he played the song “Feel Like Going Home” for the first time. And he told me, “I wrote this out of the feeling I got from reading the book.”
And a few years later, he sent me a 7-inch reel-to-reel of the piano demo. And as far as I know, that’s the only copy. Roland Janes later told me, “That’s such a great song, Peter, is the book anywhere near as good?” And I said, “Nope.” It’s no big deal, really, but I mean can you imagine a greater thrill?”
“For Once in My Life” is a song I first associated with Bennett and for the definitive ballad reading he nails it.
Lovely pic of Don Weller who played just as he looked no nonsense big toned tenor, speaking of which the best gig I ever saw at the Seven Dials was by the archetypical Texan sax giant Buddy Tate
Sorry, Mick, I’m just not a Bennett fan…
Harry Miller on bass in that great pic of Mongezi.
I need you to help me caption all these, Richard! My annotating skills were sub-par…
Looks like Keith Tippett on piano
Good to be reminded of that Aimee Mann track.
You can look up a couple of very decent Serpent themed soundtrack playlists on Spotify which soothe the nerves after biting your fingernails to the bone while watching the show.
Thanks a lot for reminding me of that ‘Osmond Bros destroy Stevie Wonder’ clip; I’d only just stopped having nightmares. Those BBC4 compilation programmes have no quality control at all, so you get absolute gems mixed up with audio torture.
I’m impressed that Perfume Genius is on your radar. Not being especially ‘down with the kids’ myself, I only know him because my nephew plays in his touring band. I wasn’t sure PG would amount to anything but it’s impressive how he has developed as an artist.
And how has your nephew coped with the touring gap, Kevin?
I have no doubt that he’s missed all the fun of being with his band buddies but he seems to have made the most of it, actually. Cooped up alone, with no other distractions, he’s just finished his second film soundtrack.
Yes, they seem to throw them together with a few odd facts as subtitles… Stevie did worse than most with their choices, I can’t forget Johnny Mathis and “Sir Duke…”
And I listen to anything that Blake Mills works on. I like the fact that he’s not satisfied being an astonishingly inventive and interesting guitar player — he has an artist’s sensibility and seems to draw special things out of those he produces. I love Laura Marling’s Semper Femina (although she found his committed methods challenging…) and I think the PG record is a leap in his production techniques.
I feel a Blake Mills playlist coming on. By the way, I’ve been listening again to the playlist compiled from your book – still sounds very good, very few that I skip.
That’s nice to hear… I will do a BM playlist and send you – there are some great odd tracks where he’s the featured soloist…