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Thread: Which track do I select (Read 23444 times) |
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Lindsay
MV Friend
Laughing Boy
Posts: 9
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Which track do I select
« : 09.06.08 at 09:15 » |
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Hi all, this is my first time on this site and I hope it is relevant. I live in Perth, Australia and listen every Thursday evenings to a late sixties, early seventies programme called Woodstock Rock. The programme is broadcast on a small local area station and over the years I have never heard any Pete Atkin records. I sent them an email and they replied that they didn't have any of his music. I recontacted them and agreed to lend them an album or two so that they could play a track. They suggested that I make the choice and this is where my dilema lies, like the kid in the sweetshop, which one do I play? Can you good people give me your opinion of which track would best suit an audience used to listening to a varied rock playlist. Pete, of course, is up there with Leonard Cohen, Al Stewart and the rest, but which track would best incapsulate the Atkin/James genre and also leave a lasting impression. Personally, I'm thinking of Beware of the Beautiful Stranger or Girl on a Train or Laughing Boy or ... help me! I look forward to your advice. Oh by the way, not Wristwatch for a Drummer, I'm not that keen on that one. Thankyou in advance.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=members&action=display&num=1212999344&start=0#0  |
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Rob Spence
MV Fixture
Hypertension Kid
Posts: 185
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #1: 09.06.08 at 10:32 » |
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I think it has to be "Payday Evening" because a) it's one of the best in the Atkin-James canon, and b) its lyric will enable you and the station to publicise this website and forum. Result! 
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Ian Ashleigh
MV Fixture
Carnations on the Roof
Posts: 155
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #2: 09.06.08 at 11:09 » |
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Whilst I agree with Rob, the lyric within Payday Evening gives its name to the Forum and to the latest CD, any of the three that Linday suggests would be welcomed but also the much overlooked The Man Who Walked Toward The Music and my personal PA/CJ favourite Carnations on the Roof although the reference to Humbers and Austin Princesses may be lost on an Australian audience.
I have recently revisted Rain - Wheels and thought again about Clive's imagery but wonder if today the lady might be escaping Hampstead for Notting Hill - again lost on anyone nnot familiar with the chanjing face of London.
Perhaps Lindsay could get the radio station to play a PA/CJ track per night for a month???
 
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Though he had no great gifts of personality or mind, he was quite well respected.
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Bogus Trumper
MV Fellow
You alone will be my last adventure
Posts: 284
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #3: 09.06.08 at 14:56 » |
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Welcome Lindsay - please keep on coming back!!
Way back in the dim and distant past it was BOTBS that hooked me for ever. But then I only had on album to choose from at the time!
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And so goodbye, my lady of a night
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Keith Busby
MV Fixture
Posts: 169
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #4: 09.06.08 at 15:24 » |
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Hi, Lindsay.
"Faded Mansion on the Hill" and tell them to think of Sydney Harbour (Fremantle wont't work!).
Keith
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Commit THAT to Your Fragrant Memory!
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Colin Crooks
MV Feature
The Hypertension Kid
Posts: 46
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #5: 09.06.08 at 15:49 » |
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How about "Canoe"?
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=members&action=display&num=1212999344&start=5#5 |
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Kevin Cryan
MV Fellow
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 1144
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #6: 09.06.08 at 16:10 » |
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Hi Linsday,
There are two very underrated tracks on the Secret Drinker album, Time and Time Again and Tongue Tied, which are always worth considering.
They are the tracks I use if ever I'm introducing Pete and Clive to new listeners, partly because neither track represents too much of a departure from what the listener may already be familair with, and partly because each song is so unostentateously well crafted that it's only after a number of hearings you realise the craft that has gone into it.
Kevin Cryan
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Anne H
MV Friend
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 26
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #7: 09.06.08 at 20:07 » |
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Hi! - I am new to this forum having only recently "re-discovered" this wonderful music. I would like to suggest "Thief in the Night" - a real classic - but like you say, it is a very hard choice! (PS I absolutely LOVE "Wristwatch for a Drummer"!)
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=members&action=display&num=1212999344&start=7#7 |
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Lindsay
MV Friend
Laughing Boy
Posts: 9
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #8: 09.06.08 at 21:31 » |
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Thank you all for taking the time.
You have all thrown in some worthy candidates, including a couple I would never have thought of, let me clarify my positon a bit more. I only have LP's and they are, Beware OTBS, AKAN, RofS, SD and Master of the Revels. The songs have to come from between the 1965-74 period and I want to make an instant impact, most people in Australia have never heard Pete's music and it could be sandwiched within any bracket. They usually play three songs together and I'm guessing he would be played with either other English artists or other singer/songwriters, we also have the Clive James factor which could put him in an Australian bracket. I'm still leaning towards BOTBS or BGOTT, but I also like the haunting poetry of Between Us There Is Nothing. Anyway, please keep offering your suggestions.
By the way, Anne, isn't that the good thing about these forums, one man's meat is another man's poison. It's good to have that variety.
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Fardel
MV Fresher
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 6
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #9: 09.06.08 at 23:36 » |
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Hi Lindsay, welcome aboard!
on 09.06.08 at 21:31, Lindsay wrote:| <snip> I only have LP's and they are, Beware OTBS, AKAN, RofS, SD and Master of the Revels. <snip>. |
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You really should get hold of a copy of "Driving Through Mythical America". This is the album I owned from way back when, and I (naturally?) think it the best. I notice several of the suggestions from others come from this album. Of course, whatever we first latch on to seems to hold a special appeal for ever, so you really should go with your first gut instinct from the music you own.
I love Beware of the Beautiful Stranger, more than any other track not on DTMA. However, again the Australian audience might not get all the references. I don't think that matters, not everyone wants to disect the lyrics to such an extent as the participants here.
Whatever you choose will not be wrong.
Ian
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Ian Chippett
MV Fellow
In the clear at over fifty-five
Posts: 332
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #10: 10.06.08 at 14:16 » |
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Why always the old stuff? What's wrong with, say, "I Have To Learn" or "Thought Of You" from Winter Spring? Much more approachable, I would have thought, for a younger audience (with all due respect to the Golden Era material.)
Ian C
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Rob Spence
MV Fixture
Hypertension Kid
Posts: 185
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #11: 10.06.08 at 15:22 » |
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on 10.06.08 at 14:16, Ian Chippett wrote:Why always the old stuff? What's wrong with, say, "I Have To Learn" or "Thought Of You" from Winter Spring? Much more approachable, I would have thought, for a younger audience (with all due respect to the Golden Era material.)
Ian C |
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Well, partly because it seems that Lindsay is providing the records, and has only the early vinyl (though a quick visit to the mighty Hillside virtual warehouse could improve that situation) and maybe partly because the Atkin-James canon is still heavily weighted in that direction - there's not much recent stuff, so arguably the earlier stuff is more representative.
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Gerry Smith
MV Fixture
Posts: 222
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #12: 10.06.08 at 17:43 » |
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Rob Spence wrote:
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Maybe. But, I think it would be more useful to send something representative of what is, not what was.
Gerry
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=members&action=display&num=1212999344&start=12#12 |
Out playing the saxes
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Anne H
MV Friend
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 26
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #13: 10.06.08 at 19:37 » |
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Hello Lindsay, hope you manage to find something that "feels" right. But Fardel is right, you must get hold of "Driving through Mythical America" (and I would add, "Live Libel", of course!) It is a really tough job to select one track from such a catalogue of treasures. Got to agree with you in one way, "Wristwatch" would probably not be the best one for people not already "into" Pete and Clive.
I agree too with the poster who suggested "Canoe". This is just such a marvellous song! I almost feel like grabbing complete strangers and urging them to listen to it - not that I ever would, of course, being far too reserved!
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S J Birkill
MV Administrator
just a sensible reserve
Posts: 883
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #14: 10.06.08 at 21:12 » |
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Woodstock Rock listeners might be best taken by something with a real early 70s feel. No, I'm not thinking Uncle Seabird -- rather I'd favour the second and third albums, the top London session crew, before the smoother feel of the TROS and SD recordings, and probably not any of the recent, jazzier-sounding stuff (wonderful though it is!)
So, I'd nominate, among the 'big' songs:
No Dice
Driving Through Mythical America
The Faded Mansion On The Hill
Between Us There Is Nothing
All The Dead Were Strangers
The Last Hill That Shows You All The Valley
And the jewels:
Lady Of A Day
The Double Agent
Except anachronistically I'd add:
Canoe
History And Geography
Femme Fatale
You Alone Will Be My Last Adventure
- which, though recorded much later, belong in spirit with the early songs. At their spine-tingling best on the Pathway and Monyash recordings, IMHO.
Problem would seem to be, Lindsay, that you're missing Driving Through Mythical America, the album that really clinched it for a great many of those here, and which must rank among the top howevermany indispensable early 70s records!
But, for sheer impact at first listening, you'd be pushed to beat the comic irony of:
Girl On The Train
Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger
SJB
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Stephen J Birkill
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Gerry Smith
MV Fixture
Posts: 222
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #15: 10.06.08 at 23:14 » |
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DTMA is by far and away my favourite album. An embarrassment of riches, including the wonderful Lady Of A Day which I never tire of hearing or playing at the piano. Never fares too well in the MV top twenties though, I seem to recall. An experiment in whole tones, if I remember rightly.
The Pathway recordings? Could you refresh my memory on this one please Steve?
Gerry
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Out playing the saxes
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Lindsay
MV Friend
Laughing Boy
Posts: 9
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #16: 10.06.08 at 23:32 » |
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Well, thanks to everyone who has replied, it's so much clearer now, I obviously put a gun to the head of the announcer/show manager and commondeer the programme for the evening. The trouble is, there just is so much wealth of talent available that one song seems a crime. To those of you who suggest later songs, I'm afraid it's got to be within that late sixties, early seventies slot and to those of you who berate me for not having DTMA, I can only apologise and say that I've definitely been meaning to get it ... for 30 odd years now. I think what I'll do is ask him to play BOTBS and feed him with the web site info and hope that a few of listeners will pick up on it. By the way, I would suggest that most of those listeners are probably of a similar age to me (21 again) and I know a lot are ex-pats so you never know, it might start a small ripple of interest.
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S J Birkill
MV Administrator
just a sensible reserve
Posts: 883
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #17: 10.06.08 at 23:41 » |
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on 10.06.08 at 23:14, Gerry Smith wrote:| The Pathway recordings? Could you refresh my memory on this one please Steve? |
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Hi Gerry
http://www.peteatkin.com/sessioni.htm
In the early days of MV we called them the 'seventh album demos' -- before we had a real 7th album. Right back at the start of the relationship, Pete was kind enough to give me a DAT of this session. A handful of CD-R copies escaped into the wild, to dedicated proto-MV types, before Pete insisted they weren't good enough for general audience. Which is why they never appeared in our Members' CD Library, while it existed (or at any other time).
Later, the CD release of The Lakeside Sessions gave us good quality recordings of most of those songs, rendering the original demo tracks, well, obsolete. But I still have a real fondness for those raw versions.
Steve
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Stephen J Birkill
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Alan Manton
MV Friend
Posts: 15
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #18: 11.06.08 at 00:26 » |
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As a "dedicated proto-MV type" I managed to capture one of those escaping CD-Rs of the Seventh Album Demos. I'll go out on a limb here and say that it's probably my favourite PA album of all, regardless of what Pete thinks about it!
IMHO "The Eye Of The Universe" has never been perfomed better...
Alan.
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You gotta help me doc...
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Gerry Smith
MV Fixture
Posts: 222
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Re: Which track do I select
« Reply #19: 11.06.08 at 00:55 » |
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Thanks, Steve. I (think) I know the recordings you mention but have never connected the word 'pathway' with them.
What a shame the original poster of this thread doesn't have a copy of 'Winter Spring'. I'm astonished no-one has suggested even in passing, 'An Empty Table', from the that CD. It's right up there with the very best.
Gerry
PS Hi Alan - long time no hear!
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=members&action=display&num=1212999344&start=19#19 |
Out playing the saxes
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