what Frank is listening to #94 – THE LEFT BANKE – Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina – (Smash) – 1967
![[The+Left+Banke+-+Walk+Away+Renee+-+Pretty+Ballerina.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B8EggxFk9qw/R7IYloOMfFI/AAAAAAAACDQ/1PVO5x38y-U/s1600/The+Left+Banke+-+Walk+Away+Renee+-+Pretty+Ballerina.jpg)
I've been looking forward to this album …
The Left Banke were a Baroque Rock/Pop band from New York. The "Baroque" term was actually used at the time … the movement was short lived though you can hear the influence on some "Paisley Underground" bands of the 80s like "The Three O'Clock"and on a lot of the Chamber Pop bands of the 90s and 00s (High Llamas, Pernice Brothers)
allmusic define it as, "Baroque Pop emerged during the mid-'60s, a time when artists including the Left Banke, the Beach Boys, producer Phil Spector, and composer/arranger Burt Bacharach began infusing rock & roll with elements of classical music, achieving a majestic orchestral sound far removed from rock's wild, primitive origins. Layered harmonies, strings, and horns are all hallmarks of baroque pop, as is the music's dramatic intensity. At the time of its inception, it was rock's most mature outgrowth to date, and its spirit lives on in everything from the Philly soul sound of the early '70s to the like-minded chamber pop sound of the mid-'90s".
It was pretty much an American movement – Burt Bacharach, Van Dyke Parks, Curt Boettcher, Lee Hazlewood (yes the country one), David Axelrod, Harpers Bizarre – I cant think of anything really coming out of England (maybe some of the Zombies, the Hollies "Evolution" LP, and possibly the Kinks "Village Green Preservation Society" LP). I tend to associate it with the US east coast perhaps because of the classical influences but also because the music isn't as "sunny" as "sunshine pop" which I associate with (and which mainly comprised) California bands (The Beach Boys (around Pet Sounds), The Turtles, The Association, The Yellow Balloon, The Grass Roots).There are some Beatles influences in there but the clear ancestry is the folk rock of The Byrds and the mini pop operas of the mid-60s Beach Boys.
As it turns out wikipedia says this (sorry I am writing contemporaneously), "Baroque pop, baroque rock or English baroque, often used interchangeably with chamber pop/rock, is a style of music originated in the mid-1960s that brought elements of classical music into the writing and recording of rock 'n' roll songs. Practitioners of the style utilized instrumentation not traditional to rock such as harpsichord, oboe, cello and french horn. Baroque pop's highest popularity occurred before the introduction of the synthesizer or sampler, so "real" instruments are heard on the recordings, usually played by session musicians. Baroque pop may be distinguished from progressive rock which uses classical instrumentation by its generally simpler song structures closer to standard pop song writing, and also by its more mainstream lyrical content as opposed to the more conceptual lyrics associated with progressive music. Baroque pop is similar to sunshine pop in subject matter, but with a more melodramatic and "darker" edge".
Either way sunshine pop and baroque pop are close brothers.
The Best Tracks
Every track on this album is good if not great … this is a magnificent (and largely unrecognised) album. It is mainly built around the songwriter Mike Brown (born Michael Lookofsky in New York, 1949) and singer Steve Martin (not that one – this one was born Carmelo Esteban Martin Caro in 1948) who has an amazing voice, smooth, high and delicate without being like a boy castrato or something like that. The pop is glorious without being MOR and there is a melancholia that hangs over the whole album. Rather than calling this "baroque pop" it would be equally apt calling this "autumn pop", which would fit well in the east coast vis a vis "sunshine pop" from California ... if you like obvious seasonal metaphors.
All the tracks are originals.
- Pretty Ballerina – a beautiful mid tempo pop ballad – a sad song about falling in love? … #15 in the US,1967
- She May Call You up Tonight – wow … an East Coast Byrds.
- Barterers and Their Wives – not sure what the lyrics are about but the harmonies and jangle carry the song.
- I've Got Something on My Mind – their distinctive sound with a nod to the Kinks' "Too Much on My Mind"?
- Let Go of You Girl – again, great harmonies etc.
- Evening Gown – despite the harpsichord a garage style rocker.
- Walk Away Renee – One of the best songs of the 60s … #5US 1967.
- What Do You Know? – a slightly countryish number and much like Ringo Starr doing "Don't Pass Me By".
- Shadows Breaking over My Head – a haunting ballad and probably the second-best song on the album (to my ears).
- I Haven't Got the Nerve – a mid tempo rocker which would have worked well in any number of movies of the day – and that's not to denigrate it.
- Lazy Day – perhaps the most British of all the tracks.
And …
It's hard to believe that most of these blokes were in their late teens or early 20s – were kids more mature then? Me thinks not. Certainly, your physical environment affects your mindset but I suspect that if all your musical cues and influences are "vibrant" and "challenging" then you will get dragged up with them … and the 60s era of music certainly was one of experimentation (it is happening now and has happened in every era but probably in a more modest form). This really is music for sitting and listening rather than dancing or grooving to. The sound was, unsurprisingly, given the studio effects and variety of instruments, difficult to recreate live on the road. (similarly, that is partially why The Beatles stopped touring when they did … how do you do Sgt Peppers on the road in the 60s?). The Left Banke however were extremely influential in an underground sort of way … much like "The Velvet Underground".
After this initial success the band faded away, Mike Brown, the main song writer went on a Brian Wilson type trip and the band collapsed. There were many line–up changes and various records released which is too convoluted for me to decipher now suffice it to say this was his only album with the Left Banke. He ended up in the underrated "Stories" with Ian Lloyd.
I'm not sure how "The Left Banke" will sit next to "MC5" on my record shelves but I never claimed to be (that) single minded … I'm keeping this.
Chart Action
The album went to #67 in the US but failed to chart in the UK.
Sound
Pretty ballerina
Walk away Renee
Live – walk away Renee
Shadows breaking Over My Head
attached
Covers: ( there is one travesty in here – guess which one …hint "The Singing Garbo")
Bio
see the websites
Website
(originally posted: 30/09/2009)
