See some of my other posts for more detail on Shawn Phillips. Suffice it to say I didn’t know a great load about him till quite recently.
He certainly is obscure, by contemporary standards, and there isn’t anything to suggest that his profile will be raised in the near future. He certainly doesn’t have a Nick Drake sized cult around him.
That’s a pity because if there was one singer songwriter ripe for rediscovery it would be Shawn Phillips.
Phillips was both a product of his time and one who transcended it because of his personal vision. From the little I’ve heard by him, four or so albums, he is remarkably consistent in theme and world view. On this album his music is embellished by electric instruments, orchestras etc though generally it is quiet acoustic music dealing with human problems in an almost ethereal manner.
Certainly the cosmos, god, and thoughts and emotions than transcend time and place feature a lot of his music, which has been constructed to accentuate that feel.
It feels like he is speaking about universal emotions but not in a preachy way.
Of course, thematically, he can also be linked to all the hippy dippy crap of the late 1960s and early 1970s. What keeps him from tipping over into hippy-dom is the attention to detail in the music itself. His music does not follow the standard backdrop of singer songwriter albums. Clearly he is a good musician with a expressive voice but he also has quite an open mind to the music and often incorporates other styles, as well as instruments into his dominant norm. Fark….that sounds pretentious.
Having said that I like his music best when it is acoustic or near acoustic. The words to some of the lyrics I can take or leave but the way he explores the themes I like. His lyrics can be quite dense and not very pop friendly. He doesn’t favour choruses or even pop hooks in a song. Each song is its own tone piece
In an earlier comment on one of his LPs I said “Singer songwriters generally live or die on the catchiness and humability of the tunes. Phillips though isn’t concerned with catchy tunes. There are hooks in his songs but he is more concerned with an aural "landscape" over the course of the album. And this is especially difficult given that he manages to create this atmosphere while playing songs in a variety of idioms – there is folk, singer songwriter, r & b, rock, baroque, classical, ye olde worlde, and some jazz. Even all that would be palatable to the mainstream if he remained within conventional lines but he eschews the verse chorus verse format and he switches tempos and tones half way through a song ( a song may start off as straight folk before going electric and orchestral).… so the sing-along-ability of the songs is near on impossible. On top of that his songs never end where you think they will.”
And that still applies here.
On this album, recorded in 1974, Phillips made some concessions to popular music and has thrown in some funk and prog rock to go with his lyrics and found an audience receptive to him. The album went to #50 in the
I have nothing about making concessions to commerciality but sometimes it does seem to dilute the artists “vision” …it’s much better to do whatever you want and create your own audience, but how many acts can do that? Bugger all. Most people make concessions to commerciality to reach a wider audience or remain happy courting a smaller but loyal audience. I gather Phillips always had a small loyal audience and this album’s stab at commerciality is still auteurist enough to disappoint no one and good enough to create a few more followers.
Having said that there are a few things I dislike ….songs that run into each other, for one. OK, I acknowledge there is a point to that here …he is creating a vibe …. but I‘ve always found it annoying.
Also some of the songs are a bit duff in that typical pompous, pretentious, prog rock way. I don’t like prog and I know I have to cut Phillips some slack, but he even references Greek mythology which the prog rockers were always doing when they weren’t referring to Arthur, Excalibur and the dreary knights.
This is Donovan, meets Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull at
Phillips band here also played on this album “Rumplestiltskin’s resolve” (1976). The band is:
- Shawn Phillips – vcls and guitar
- Peter Robinson – keyboards (English session man who has played with everyone and now does film composition http://www.jpeterrobinson.com/)
- John Gustafson – bass (Liverpudlian sessionman who has played with everyone and was a member of Roxy Music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gustafson_(musician))
- Barry de Souza – drums (sessionman extraordinaire)
- Caleb Quaye – gtr (session guitarist extraordinaire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb_Quaye)
- Paul Buckmaster –cello (sessionman extraordinaire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Buckmaster)
- Raul Mayora – percussion (sessionman extraordinaire)
- Ann Odell – mellotron on “Starbright” (session person extraordinaire http://www.annodell.com/)
Phillips wrote all the songs bar two which he co-wrote and there is a good poem, “Freeways Child” by his writer father on the back (the album was inspired by the poem apparently). See below for links to his father.
Tracks (best in italics)
- January First – a bit jarring. I always associate Phillips with singer songwriters – though one who is also an accomplished musician. This is a very funky chucka wucka opening that shows off the bands skills…and they are skilled.
- Starbright – starts off well. A wistful, trippy ballad that reminds a little of Tim Buckley circa “Happy Sad”(1969). The convention song structure is clearly not important:
Starlight burn bright
Countless eons of time
Have you burned that way for a billion years
Glittering ever brightly
And I see earthrise, our eyes
How much longer to go
Little sphere of dirt that we live upon
Trembling in its last throes
- Breakthrough – another great acoustic ballad …it turns a little hippy half way through, though Shawn seems prone to that.
- Ninety Two Years – another funky song this one with a dose of 70s social realism in the lyric.
- See You – a gentle beautiful song that again has a Tim Buckley feel
- Planscape – a trippy prog rock instrumental with everything thrown in including a eerie chorus, dramatic crescendos, orchestra and the kitchen sink. A rock operatic instrumental very much of it’s time.
- Troof – a ballad …..slightly overly dramatic and arguably pretentious but hard to dislike
- Capé Barras – an instrumental with some vocal scatting? Weird.
- Song for
- Mr. President – a heavy orchestral introduction with shades of “Live and Let Die” …before entering into a rapid fire rap about the President, Prime Minister and Premier and war.
- Talking in the Garden – I expected to see dancing gnomes coming out of the speaker – this is a little like Jethro Tull and their most mushroom induced.
- Furthermore – a funky instrumental. I suspect the instrumentals are there to show off his band and keep them happy because they have bugger all to do during the ballads.
And …
At first blush this is an album that doesn’t work, but it does grow…. I’m keeping it.
There are a few too many concessions to the music of 1974 but Phillips still dances to the music of his own drum.
Chart Action
US
Singles
—
Album
1975 #50
Singles
Album
—
Sounds
January First
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj_f2s1dks0
Starbright
Attached
Breakthrough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH18SmqpSME
live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQjpVxtKl8M
Song for
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7prcbkIhzC4
Mr. President
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcXqyQ3_Rqo
Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8uw9YRC_g
Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSUIYH5Gx-s
Talking in the Garden
Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIUbo9PGXZs
Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18mU2ZHNSAQ (the Neil Armstrong is a urban legend)
Others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRxKl0zz2tE
Review
http://www.allmusic.com/album/furthermore-r46619
Bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Phillips
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/shawn-phillips-p5140
Website
http://www.shawnphillips.com/index.html
http://www.myspace.com/shawnphillipsmusic
http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/music/70s/furthermore/
Trivia
- His father was crime writer James Atlee Phillips. He also co wrote the screenplay to the excellent Robert Mitchum film Thunder Road (1958), and apparently worked on the John Wayne red hysteria (but entertaining) Big Jim McLain (1952)
http://www.shawnphillips.com/photovideo/photogallery/PHJames.htm
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-06-03/news/9102190460_1_mr-phillips-novels-edgar-award
- His uncle (his fathers brother) is well known CIA “official” David Atlee Phillips.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Atlee_Phillips
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKphillips.htm
- And yes he does look like a lawyer from legal aid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceTfH3GQQLg
