Lungo questi sei mesi di iscrizione ho avuto il piacere di mettere in campo le mie non eccelse conoscenze musicali. Tutte le mie recensioni sono state frutto di letture, esperienze e ragionamenti. I giudizi sono stati sì positivi, ma un pò più negativi, visto che il 60% della musica che ho recensito è da pop leggero o adolescenziale.
Questa volta sarò un pò più limitato del solito, perché il disco che recensisco ha visto un giudizio impeccabile e una recensione da 5 da parte di Ringostarfish. Gli Small Faces arrivano a "Ogdens'" con tre anni di carriera e un buon numero di singoli di successo dove spiccano a parer mio "All Or Nothing", Itchycoo Park" (canzone dedicata a un parco londinese con velati riferimenti alla droga) e "Tin Soldier".
Quando Steve Marriott (chitarra e voce), Ronnie Lane (basso e voce), Ian MacLagan (preceduto da Jimmy Winston) (piano) e Kenney Jones (batteria) si trovano a produrre il capolavoro con cui chiuderanno la carriera, sono tornati a casa dopo un disastroso tour in Australia e in Nuova Zelanda con gli Who e con sole musiche e varie idee per il nuovo album.
Ma nessuna idea ancora per le liriche. Il loro manager Andrew Loog Oldham propone di passare una settimana sul Tamigi affittando una barca. L'idea è assurda (nessuno di loro sa remare) ma funziona. Quando una delle notti passate in luoghi adatti per "cucinare il loro cibo, fare casino e suonare le loro chitarre" uno dei quattro vede stordito la mezza luna chiedendosi dove sia l'altro mezzo, parte l'idea che darà origine e forma al lato b del disco. Il personaggio Happiness Stan è un ragazzo che quasi innamoratosi della luna quando la vede mangiata dal tempo diventa depresso, finché la luna non ritorna a tutta la sua pienezza e al suo splendore, e Stan non riacquista quindi la felicità.
Stupendo album che parte con una title-track strumentale e ci consegna non solo un capolavoro, ma la canzone storica del gruppo: "Lazy Sunday", scritta da Steve Marriott sulle liti che aveva con i suoi vicini. Grande video (magnifica Youtube) e un'esibizione dal vivo con effetto comparsa e scomparsa del gruppo e un grande orologio sullo sfondo. Di "Song Of A Baker" ho letto una particolarità: contrappone la religione sufi (una corrente mistica in seno alla religione islamica) ai sostenitori dell'heavy metal (negli anni '60 i musicisti ne avevano di idee!).
Ho scoperto chi è Stanley Unwin, la voce narrante che intervalla tra un brano e l'altro: un comico inglese degli anni '60 che storpiando l'inglese ha creato un suo linguaggio chiamato "Unwinese".
L'anno scorso ho scoperto gli Small Faces grazie sempre a Youtube e "Lazy Sunday" è stata la prima canzone che ho ascoltato (poi mi sono beccato i rumori e le urla di "Wha'cha gonna do about it" e Sha la-la-la lee" a "Beat! Beat! Beat!" in Germania dell'esibizione live del '66 e la bellezza delle canzoni citate all'inizio, sempre su Youtube).
Ho ricordato anche i quarant'anni di "Ogdens' " comprandolo a Londra e recensendolo in questo mese, nell'anno dove cadono i quarant'anni di scioglimento del gruppo (il ritorno di Steve Marriott negli anni '70 con solo McLagan e Jones non ha avuto successo).
La morte di Marriott nel '91 per l'incendio della sua casa nell'Essex e di Lane nel '97 per una polmonite (negli anni '70 era stato colpito da una sclerosi multipla) sono le note dolenti della storia degli Small Faces.
Ma io me li godo lo stesso, rinnovando i miei complimenti a Ringostarfish e invintandovi a leggere la sua recensione.
Boop7
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
04 Rene (04:29)
There she is parading on the quayside
You can find her every night
Ah, waiting for a stevedore from Tyneside -
Why it's Rene, the docker's delight!
Well, if you just got off an oil tanker
And you've got the readies in the bin (Readies = cash and having them 'in the bin' means having money)
Just make your way down to The Crown & Anchor [London pub famous for being a rock music venue through the 60's and 70's)
Ask for Rene (ohh, hello ducks!) and you'll be well in.
She's Rene, the docker's delight, and a ship's in every night
Romping with a stoker from the coast of Kuala Lumpur
Love is like an 'ole in the wall
A line-up in the warehouse no trouble at all
If you can spare the money, you'll have a ball -
She'll have yours (It sounds like 'she'll have your oars out' but it's just the way he sings 'yours-a'
Well, there's a kid of every shape and colour
Safely hid in coal-sheds, double locked (this alludes to black kids by white prostitutes, hidden away)
Where it's been said that Rene is the mother.
I wonder - well, there you go!
She's Rene, the docker's delight, and a ship's in every night
Groping with a stoker from the coast of Kuala Lumpur
05 Song of a Baker (03:14)
Written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Laine.
From 'Ogdens Nut Gone Flake'
There's wheat in the field
And water in the stream
And salt in the mine
And an aching in me.
I can longer stand and wonder
Cos I'm driven by this hunger.
So I'll jug some water, bake some flour,
Store some salt and wait the hour.
When thinking of love,
Love is thinking for me
And the baker will come
And the baker I'll be
I'm depending on my labour,
The texture and the flavour
Hey!
I can no longer stand and wonder
Cos I'm driven by this hunger
So I'll jug some water, bake some flour.
Store some salt and wait the hour.
06 Lazy Sunday (03:04)
A wouldn't it be nice to get on with me neighbours
But they make it very clear
They've got no room for ravers
They stop me from groovin', they bang on me wall
They doing me crust in, it's no good at all - ah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I've got no mind to worry
I close my eyes and drift away-a
Here we all are sittin' in a rainbow
Gor blimey hello Mrs. Jones
How's old Bert's lumbago? He mustn't grumble
Tweedle dee bite
I'll sing you a song with no words and no tune
Tweedle dee bite
To sing in your party while you souse at the moon - oh yeah
Lazy Sunday afternoon-a - tweedle dee bite - tweedle dee bite - tweedle dee bite
I've got no mind to worry - yeah - I've got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away-a
Root-de-doo-de-doo, a-root-de-doot-de doy di
A-root-de doot de dum, a-ree-de-dee-de-doo dee - doo doo ....
There's no one to hear me, there's nothing to say
And no one can stop me from feeling this way - yeah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I've got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I've got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift a-
Close my mind and drift away
Close my eyes and drift away
08 Happiness Stan (02:37)
"Are you all sitting comftybold two square on your botty? Then I'll begin …"
Once upon a time in a land of greens
Where the sky was silky soft
And full of colored dreams
Deep inside a rainbow
Lived Happiness Stan
In a small Victorian charabanc
Evening will be here quite soon
Stan can sit and watch the moon
Watching as the white light
Slowly makes the night bright
Hours slipping by while time stands still
Think of black and black will think of you
It's coloured Stan in the bruises
Of the darkness that we knew
For black had stolen half the moon away
09 Rollin' Over (02:50)
Rollin’ over
Goodbye sunshine I'm on my way
I'll be long time gone by the break of day
Tell everyone that I'm gonna find it
There ain't nothin' gonna stop me –
Rollin' Over, Rollin' Over
Save all your lovin' till I get home
To the sweetest lovin' sunshine that I've ever known
Tell everyone that I'm gonna find it
There ain't nothin' gonna stop me –
Rollin' Over, Shak-do-way
Rollin' Over, Yeah-yeah-yeah...
10 The Hungry Intruder (02:15)
Here am I
Tiny Fly
May I share your Shepherd's Pie? (English meal, mashed potato & mince
meat)
What is this strange voice I hear?
Here I am
Look This Way
In the landscape on your tray
There's no need to ask a silly question
If I were you I hope you'd do the same
There's no doubt I'd help a hungry fly
To see you in a fix it's really such a shame
I'm so hungry
I could die
And now I'll a living fly
My name is Stan
I'm on a quest
Take your fill,
Take nothing less
I am that
That am I
And now I'll be a living fly
11 The Journey (04:09)
The Journey
If tomorrow was today
It would yesterday
The sun is surely just a thought away
Where visions that men fail
To put to words to tale
And music that they try but cannot (p)lay
You're right it's just a dream, your company so kind
Hold very tightly please and we shall go out.
12 Mad John (02:50)
There was an old man who lived in the greenwood
nobody knew him or what he had done
but mothers would say to their children, "Beware of Mad John."
John would sing with the birds in the morning
laugh with the wind in the cold end of night
but people from behind their curtains, said he's not quite right.
John had it sussed he was living the life of a tramp
yes his bed was the cold and the damp but the sun was his friend
he was free
So here was a wise one who loved all the haters
he loved them so much that their hate turned to fear
and shaking from behind their curtains the loved ones would hear.
13 Happy Days Toy Town (04:19)
Happy Days Toy Town
Life is just a bowl of All-Bran
You wake up every morning and it's there
So live as only you can
It's all about enjoy it 'cos ever since you saw it
There aint no one can take it away.
So life is just a bowl of All-Bran - very true!
What you say has made it very clear
To be sure I'll live as best as I can
But how can I remember to keep it all together
When half the moon is taken away?
Well, I've got the very thing
If you can laugh and sing
Give me those happy days toytown newspaper smiles
Clap twice, lean back, twist for a while
When you're untogether and feeling out of tune
Sing this special song with me, don't worry 'bout the moon
Looks after itself
Steve: Can I have a go?
Ron: Yes
Steve: Yeah?
Ron: Sing now:
Give me those happy days toytown newspaper smile
Clap twice, lean back, twist for a while
Well now you've got the hang of it
There's nothing you can't do with it
If you're very tuned to it you can't go wrong.
All together!
Give me those happy days toytown newspaper smile
Clap twice, lean back, twist for a while
Well now we've got the hang of it
There's nothing we can't do with it
And now we're very into it we can't go wrong!
[Stanley Unwin's nonsense here]
Give me those happy days toytown newspaper smile
Clap twice, lean back, twist for a while
Well now we've got the hang of it
There's nothing we can't do with it
And now we're very into it we can't go wrong!
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di RingoStarfish
È la gioia di poter finalmente aprire le ali, di poter dire senza freni quel che siamo.
Questo gioiello rock verrà lodato per decenni e continuerà a fare continui adepti e fedelissimi.
