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        Pete Atkin >> Members >> Which track do I select
        
(Message started by: Lindsay on Today at 09:15)
Title: Which track do I select
Post by Lindsay on Today at 09:15
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.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Rob Spence on Today at 10:32
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! :)
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Ian Ashleigh on Today at 11:09
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???

;D ::)
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by BogusTrumper on Today at 14:56
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!   :)
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Keith Busby on Today at 15:24
Hi, Lindsay.

"Faded Mansion on the Hill" and tell them to think of Sydney Harbour (Fremantle wont't work!).

Keith
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Colin Crooks on Today at 15:49
How about "Canoe"?
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 16:10
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
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Anne H on Today at 20:07
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"!)
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Lindsay on Today at 21:31
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.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Fardel on Today at 23:36
Hi Lindsay, welcome aboard!


on 06/09/08 at 21:31:36, Lindsay wrote :
<snip> I only have LP's and they are, Beware OTBS, AKAN, RofS, SD and Master of the Revels. <snip>.


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
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Ian Chippett on 10.06.08 at 14:16
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
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Rob Spence on 10.06.08 at 15:22

on 06/10/08 at 14:16:21, 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

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.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Gerry Smith on 10.06.08 at 17:43
Rob Spence wrote:

Quote:
so arguably the earlier stuff is more representative.


Maybe. But, I think it would be more useful to send something representative of what is, not what was.

Gerry
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Anne H on 10.06.08 at 19:37
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!  
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by S J Birkill on 10.06.08 at 21:12
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
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Gerry Smith on 10.06.08 at 23:14
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
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Lindsay on 10.06.08 at 23:32
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.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by S J Birkill on 10.06.08 at 23:41

on 06/10/08 at 23:14:17, Gerry Smith wrote :
The Pathway recordings? Could you refresh my memory on this one please Steve?

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 (http://www.peteatkin.com/library.htm), 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
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Alan Manton on 11.06.08 at 00:26
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.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Gerry Smith on 11.06.08 at 00:55
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!
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Murray McGlew on 11.06.08 at 09:59
Good question Lindsay. I suppose the up-tempo or rockier ones are the immediately appealing. When I first got the BOTBS/DTMA CD it was the DTMA track along with The Original Honky Tonk Night Train Blues that I liked most at first listening. I didn't have any seventies exposure to the music so I suppose that was a completely fresh, if not particularly  insightful, impression.

Making any number of assumptions about the target audience for a programme named Woodstock Rock it occurs to me that Rain Wheels might have the sort of sound they like. What is the frequency of the radio station? I'm not often down in Perth other than on a weekend, but we do get FM reception most of the time here.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Lindsay on 11.06.08 at 13:53
Hi Murray,
Good to hear from you again, RTRfm is on 92.1fm and a replay of each week and previous weeks programme can be found on the internet on http://www.rtrfm.com.au/shows/woodstock. I have emailed the presenter but have yet to hear where he wants me to deliver the albums. I will post on here as soon as I know what night my track will be played. I must admit I listened to the Perth recording of Thief in the Night the other day and really enjoyed it, so maybe I go with that one.
To Gerry, I do have a copy of Winter Spring, but as I said before, I'm working in a time span and that album will be one that an interested listener will pick up themselves.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Ian Ashleigh on 11.06.08 at 22:10
I have to agree with Gerry, An Empty Table is one of those rare songs when the Musical Gods conspire to produce a perfect performance.  The combination of lyric, music, performance and production make for a song that hits you right where the composers intend.

Clive's lyric:"And folding chairs, well, what they do is fold
                   They do it once and they can do it twice"

Simple  but abosolutely wonderful, we've all been there, lost love and bittersweet memories.

Lindsay, you and your friends at the Radio Station should contact the good people at Hillside Records and acquire the newer recodings - including the Live in Australia set.
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by BogusTrumper on 12.06.08 at 16:56

on 06/10/08 at 14:16:21, 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
It has to be from 1965-74, which could cause problems with the later stuff
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Lindsay on 20.06.08 at 13:36
Hello everyone,
I now know the details of which songs will appear on the Woodstock Rock show. The tracks (yes, two) will be played next Thursday, the 26th, the show starting at 8pm Perth time or I believe 1pm London time. After much deliberation and input it has been decided that Beware of the Beautiful Stranger will be played along with ..... Rain-Wheels. These were decided by the presenter after I gave him my albums to listen to. If you can't hear the programme live, then it can be replayed at your leisure on the site I mentioned on my last input. Thank you once again everyone that added their suggestions and well done Ian Ashleigh for your perception.
Title: Strange Bedfellows
Post by Lindsay on 26.06.08 at 23:35
Hi all,
Well, we got two tracks played, although it ended up being BOTBS and Between Us There Is Nothing plus a Doug Ashdown version of The Flowers and The Wine, we also got a very good mention of Pete and Clive and a recommendation to visit the website. I must admit though it did seem surreal to hear Pete and Hawkwind in the same programme, although maybe not, those Space Cowboys could break an ankle dancing on the moon!
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by BogusTrumper on 27.06.08 at 04:46
Congrats!!

Any way to spread the word is good!
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Ian Ashleigh on 27.06.08 at 13:20
Welcome back to Midnight Voices, you have been missed!!

Hi Lindsay

Thank you for your good wishes, and well done on getting the music played.  Maybe your friendly presenter will revisit Rain-Wheels on another day - I still think that the musical and lyrical imagery within that song represents PA/CJ at their best.

Changing tack slightly ...

My mp3 player threw I Have to Learn in this morning and I stopped reading the paper and listned again to every word and note within the song.  It is a magical song, magnificent and (bear with me on this) could become a modern standard.  I could imagine Michael Ball singing it - or turning back the clock 40 years or so Sinatra making it a fixture in his set the way he adopted George Harrison's Something.  We have a habit of concentratring on the early works - and rightly so but the newer songs sit very well within the cannon.

How can we get I Have to Learn out of the forum and into the general consciousness??
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Ian Ashleigh on 27.06.08 at 21:38

Having followed Lindsay's link, the playlist for this week's show is copied and pasted below:

Art - Supernatural Fairy Tales
Blood Sweat And Tears - God Bless The Child
The Alan Bown - Thru The Night
Fleetwood Mac -      Man Of The World
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Supernatural
Captain Beefheart - Long Neck Bottles
Roy Harper - Ageing Raver
Doug Ashdown -      The Flowers And The Wine
Pete Atkin - Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger
Pete Atkin - Between Us There Is Nothing
Daevid Allen - Have You Seen My Friend
Keith Christmas - The Forest And The Shore
Kaleidoscope - Egyptian Gardens
Jefferson Airplane - How Do You Feel
Fairport Convention - Book Song
Frank Zappa - Trouble Every Day
Spirit - Nothing To Hide
The Who - Baba O'Reilly
The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Women
Mott The Hoople - Drivin' Sister
Spooky Tooth - Better By You, Better Than Me
Hawkwind  - Orgone Accumulator
Motorhead - Louie Louie
Title: Re: Which track do I select
Post by Lindsay on 28.06.08 at 00:53
Oops, pressed wrong key, Ian I guess the best way of making it aware is to contact a station like Radio 2 and get it played, then if other people outside of the MV collective like it, it may be picked up. Other than that, you could send it to a couple of likely candidates in the same way that Sinatra had hundreds of perfect songs sent to him each week. Good luck.


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