Stories
Stories
Kama Sutra Records KSBS 2051
1972
I'm beginning to dread looking at the obituaries in the newspaper (yes I'm the kind of dinosaur who still reads print media.) It seems like every day another rocker appears in there. There are a bunch of them I've yet to comment on. However seeing Michael Brown's obituary in the "LA Times" on Saturday, really hit hard. Despite his small discography the man was one of my musical idols. His album with the Left Banke "Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina" is one of my all time favorite records. This album can't compete with that masterpiece, but I still love it. It was the debut album by Stories the band Brown formed with vocalist/bassist Ian Lloyd after leaving Montage. Brown and Lloyd co-wrote all the songs on the album. It begins with "Hello People" which is a hippie utopia song driven by Brown's piano. Lloyd has a strong vocal on the song supported by some enthusiastic gospel style back-up singing. It gets the record off to a bright start. "I'm Coming Home" is an upbeat song with a ragtime feel until the chorus which sounds like Badfinger. Brown plays energetic piano throughout with a nice solo. The song rocks out winningly at the end. It was released as a single but didn't crack the top 40. "Winter Scenes" is pure chamber pop with sensitive and evocative lyrics using winter imagery to describe a love affair. Halfway in, the song abruptly shifts into a boogie with frenetic keyboard work from Brown and then alternates between chamber pop and rocking out. "Step Back" is more of a conventional rock song with Steve Love's guitar licks out in the forefront. Lloyd's forceful vocal carries the song. "You Told Me" is another chamber pop song that features Brown and Lloyd's fathers playing violin (they are depicted on the back cover with their sons.) Both violinists were professional musicians and their playing largely drives the song and gives it a baroque sound. The song is about breaking up and heartbreak with an emotional vocal from Lloyd. Side two opens with "St. James" which is a propulsive rocker displaying dynamic interplay between Brown's piano and Love's guitar. It is the most exciting track on the album. The album slows down for "Kathleen" which is a chamber pop love song. It boasts a pair of harpsichord solos from Brown and violin support from Brown and Lloyd's fathers. "Take Cover" is riff driven with a lumbering guitar solo from Love who also offers effective vocal harmonies backing up Lloyd. "Nice to Have You Here" is a delicate chamber pop song dominated by Brown on harpsichord and organ. The song allows Lloyd to demonstrate his vocal range and emotional expressiveness. The album concludes with "High and Low" which is loaded with pop smarts - creative vocal harmonies, swelling shifts in tempo, stinging guitar solo, multi-tracked keyboards. This effervescent, shimmering song about the turbulence of love gives the record an ebullient finish. This is a wonderful record, one of the best of its era. Ian Lloyd was the most talented vocalist Brown ever recorded with and his vocal strength greatly enhanced Brown's music. He could rock out or gently croon with equal authority and grace. His voice has an appealing grain to it, a slight raspy quality that reminds me of Robert Plant or the young Rod Stewart. The music sounds great, brilliantly arranged and loaded with texture and density. Like Badfinger and Big Star, Stories brought the best qualities of the music of the 1960s into a 1970s sound - short songs, creative arrangements, melodic hooks and elaborate vocal harmonies. 43 years later it still sounds great to me. These guys should have been huge and Michael Brown should have made dozens of albums instead of a mere five. How is it possible that guys like Don Henley and James Taylor made more records than Brown did? How did Carly Simon and Chicago sell millions more records than Brown did? I was around back in the 70's and I haven't a clue. Most of the music on the radio back then was mediocre, even awful. I hated it so much that I fled back to the 1960s for my music. Later I realized that good music was out there in the early 1970s, it just wasn't on the radio and maybe we were just too dumb to appreciate it. A generation that preferred to listen to the Doobie Brothers, America or the Eagles instead of Badfinger, Big Star or Stories basically got what it deserved. It is tragic that Chris Bell, Tom Evans and Pete Ham died before they were rediscovered by a new and smarter generation of music fans, at least Alex Chilton and Michael Brown lived long enough to see their music finally embraced and celebrated. They are both gone now, but their music will live on and if you've never heard any of it this album is a good place to start. Recommended to fans of early Todd Rundgren.
The Beckies
The Beckies
Sire SASD-7519
1976
This is the last album by the great Michael Brown, the creative force behind the Left Banke, Montage and Stories. The record doesn't feature much of the chamber pop of the Left Banke, instead it is largely power pop, arguably the hardest rocking record that Brown ever made. The group formed in 1974 after Brown left Stories and hooked up with three musicians from the Kansas City music scene, Scott Trusty, Mayo James McAllister and Gary Hodgden (the latter two were in Chesmann Square, a band that was huge in Kansas City but never broke nationally.) Hodgden and Brown wrote all the songs on the album and Hodgden and Trusty handled the lead vocals. They both have high, sensitive voices that remind me of Steve Martin's vocals for the Left Banke although neither are as good as Martin. It opens with "Right By My Side (Etude)" which like all the songs on the record is a love song. It features a driving beat, sparkling harmony vocals from Tommy Finn (ex-Left Banke bassist), pounding piano riffs from Brown and lots of ringing guitar lines, pure power pop bliss. One of my favorite cuts. "River Bayou" is a lot more delicate, driven by Brown's piano, strings and Hodgden's quavery vocal. It sounds more like the baroque pop that Brown did with the Left Banke. "Midnight and You" is a rocker sung by Trusty who is a more forceful singer than Hodgden. Some nice stinging guitar lines on this song but the vocal harmonies and jangly rhythm guitar keep it in the power pop camp. "Fran" returns to the sound of "River Bayou" - strings and piano. It's a lovely song. "Other Side Of Town" continues the slow/fast dynamic of the album mixing rollicking verses with a smooth harmonic chorus. The song features prominent percussion and strings for a very rich sound. "Song Called Love" is another rocker with Brown's energetic piano licks duelling with the guitar riffs and a soaring vocal from Trusty giving the song extra oomph. It is another one of my favorites. Side two begins with Brown pounding his piano on "Can't Be Alone" before being joined by the band for another fast paced song. Hodgden's vocal sounds strained, he can't match the frenetic pace of the song. "River Song" keeps up the fast pace and features some of Brown's most exciting piano playing. "On The Morning That She Came" returns to chamber pop for a tale of a lost love. It manages to be moving and emotional without being sappy, which has always been one of Brown's gifts as a songwriter. "One of These Days" reminds me of Badfinger with its dense sound of shimmering harmonies, jangly guitars mixed with slide guitar licks, strings and cascading piano lines and a structure alternating sensitive verses with a hard-riffing chorus. Hodgden's vocal even sounds a bit like Pete Ham. It is archetypal power pop and another one of my faves. "Run Jenny Run" is a rousing rocker that gives the album a strong finish. This is such a good record, but it made little impact in its time. When I think back to all the crappy music that was on the radio back in 1976, this record is infinitely superior to 99% percent of that stuff. Michael Brown is truly one of the great lost talents of rock and roll. He deserved a better career but I'm grateful for the few records that he left us - there is not a bad one in the bunch. Recommended for fans of Big Star.
Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
The Left Banke
Smash MGS 27088
1967
The Left Banke did not invent chamber pop but I think there is little doubt that this is the definitive chamber pop album of the 1960s (or as the liner notes label it, "baroque" pop.) I think its only real competition would be the Zombie's "Odessey and Oracle" and this one came first. 1967 was the greatest year in pop music in my opinion, so many wonderful albums came out that year, but I would assert that of all those albums, this one is among the freshest and least dated. It has influenced countless modern indie rock bands from Belle and Sebastian to the Ladybug Transistor and I think it is just as relevant and meaningful now as the day it was issued. The album begins with my favorite of all their songs, "Pretty Ballerina." The song is driven by a hypnotic piano line by Michael Brown supplemented by the drone of a tasteful string arrangement and a nice oboe solo. Steve Martin's delicate and tender vocal helps make this one of the most beautiful songs of its era. It is followed by "She May Call You Up Tonight" which sticks to conventional rock instrumentation, but the interplay between Brown's piano and the jangly folk-rock style guitar has a baroque feel. The song features some stunning vocal harmonies singing the memorable lyrics of jealousy and unrequited love. With both a lute and a harpsichord, the baroque sound is heavy on the extraordinary "Barterers and Their Wives." This courtly song's lyrics attacking businessmen are gorgeously sung by Martin, George Cameron and Tom Finn. It demonstrates how distinctive and unique the group's music was. "I've Got Something On My Mind" continues in the same vein with a harpsichord and strings supporting another delicate vocal of frustrated romance. Brown switches to a clavinet for "Let Go Of You Girl" and group members, Rick Brand, Cameron and Finn are finally allowed to play after being replaced by session men for most of the album. It is the only song on the album that features the band pictured on the cover. It is a simple pop song with banal lyrics, but the sophisticated vocals and the clavinet raise it to a higher level. Brown uses both an electric piano and a harpsichord on the rollicking and sexy "Evening Gown" which demonstrates that Martin was also adept at rocking out. It may be the hardest rocking song ever to mention butlers, parlor doors and evening gowns and contradicts the stereotype that the Left Banke was a wimpy band. Side two kicks off with the song that is primarily responsible for that wimpy stereotype, the eternal classic "Walk Away Renee." Dominated by strings and harpsichord with a flute solo, the song's weepy lyrics of heartbreak and unrequited love are sung in high quavering vocals, it is both a quintessential landmark for chamber pop and twee indie rock. If you have a problem with that, this is not the blog for you. I worship this song and all it has wrought. "What Do You Know" takes a very different direction. It is country rock featuring a rare lead vocal by Michael Brown, it is one of the odder songs in the Left Banke catalog. It is not all that great, but it is indicative of the band's versatility. The opening strings of "Shadows Breaking Over My Head" signal a return to normalcy. This is one of the prettiest and most haunting songs on the album. "I Haven't Got the Nerve" is the only song not written by Michael Brown on the album, it was written by George Cameron and Steve Martin and they share the lead vocal as well. Brown plays a mambo/samba style riff on the harpsichord which works surprisingly well. The record ends with "Lazy Day" which features original group guitarist Jeff Winfield playing some stinging fuzz guitar, no chamber pop here, this is as close as the Left Banke got to playing straight ahead rock and roll. This is a great record, one of my all time faves. Recommended to lovelorn music students.
