I’m a late convert to the joys of Shawn Phillips.
Read my other comments on him on this blog.
Phillips tended to be associated with "hippie music" and I tended to avoid hippie music in my youth. And even now I cringe at the term and the thought. The trouble is that to label Phillips as purely "hippie" would be unfair.
Sure, this album may be more "hippie" than some of the others but what Phillips was really was a cosmic psychedelic singer songwriter.
This is his first electric album and third album proper – he had put out a couple of straight acoustic folk albums in the mid 1960s – and the music is hippie, come psychedelic, come folk rock, come singer songwriter. It is a little here and a little there so it perhaps is his transition album (from what I have heard) between the folk of old and the electric guitar based singer songwriter of the 1970s.
I should say most of Phillips albums are "gentle" with voice and instrumentation creating a otherworldly vibe though here the instrumentation, and especially the guitars, are not as prominent as his voice.
I like his voice.
A lot of people do not.
Phillips seems to be trying to use his voice as an instrument and sings, scats, whispers and double tracks through the album.
The album was apparently recorded in 1968 with Steve Winwood , Eric Clapton and others ( Phillips, a Texan, was living in London at the time) and released in 1970. I don’t know why the album was released at the time and I don’t know the need for the other guitarist as Phillips is an accomplished and recognized guitarist himself..
In any event the late 60s rootsy hippie vibe was pretty much done by 1970. In 1968 however, Phillips, who wrote all the songs, would have been "cutting edge" (or is that "frayed edge"?) as I can hear bits and pieces of Crosby Stills Nash and Young here , as well as a lot of Stephen Stills’ solo work and Tim Buckley. With Stills and Buckley he shares a leaning to quite literate, and literate referenced, songs.
What I like is the fact the songs float and are other worldly at times. To be sure if i put this on in front of my friends I would get "What is this shit". But, if you listen there is a lot going on.
The downside is that there is a lot of the late 60s hippie vibe here.
Tracks (best in italics)
- Man Hole Covered Wagon – a wordy folk rock number which a vocal tour de force. It’s slightly pretentious but so ambitious that it’s forgivable. Oddly, despite Phillips more "respectable" non pop origins this could pass for a later Lou Christie number.
- L Ballade – a Donovan like ballad but without a hook but quite haunting.
- Not Quite Nonsense – a old tymey number which doesn’t try to sound authentic. Filler …but fun enough and it breaks up the more serious songs on the album.
- No Question – very much of the time.
In the days of tomorrow
In the time of the passing years
I will look through my window
And my window will see my tears
And the green rocky hillsides
Are the shade of a lonely man
And the blue ever changing
Sea of gold lends a helping hand
In a minute there can be an hour
In a second there can be a day
And a thousand years may pass us by
And we will be that near, be that near
And the black gray night will fall around
This glasshouse that I’m in
And the day will break onto my bed
And I will see again, see again
- Withered Roses – a long up-tempo mood piece.
- For RFK JFK and MLK. – a song about three assassinated icons of the 60s. It’s not stridently political.
- Lovely Lady – weird. Jethro Tull dancing pixies with piccolos territory here..
- Screamer for Phlyses – Donovan-esque and catchy.
And …
Stick a flower in my ass and call me a hippie. This is quite good but I’m not sure how many times I will play it….. still, I’m I’m keeping it.
Chart Action
nothing
Sounds
Man Hole Covered Wagon
live 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-5jG6a2mo
L Ballade
live 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeHkyBlHCHE
Not Quite Nonsense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDhO2JStsRI
No Question
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBw34dY07OQ
Withered Roses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ2DAWZkgfk
For RFK JFK and MLK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J4gnrKQ-EM
Lovely Lady
live 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsan-U4OLo
Screamer for Phlyses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsDfhbAyh5k
and attached MP3
Shawn Phillips – Screamer for Phlyses
Others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kvb4LHq82M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRxKl0zz2tE
Review
http://stuckinthepast08.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/shawn-phillips-contribution-1970.html
http://psychedelicobscurities.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/shawn-phillips-1970-contribution.html
Bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Phillips
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/shawn-phillips-mn0000016617
Website
http://www.shawnphillips.com/
http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/
Trivia
- "I roomed with Tim Hardin and played with him in the Greenwich Village folk scene for a while during the early ’60s" http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/famous-friends/
- "I was invited a couple of times to Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s house. We were on a very friendly basis. Paul invited me to a session, and I ended up singing background vocals on “Lovely Rita Meter Maid”, and we saw each other socially many times after that, at the Moody Blues house, and various clubs around London. I gave George some basic lessons on sitar, before he ever actually met Ravi Shankar. It was basically the same with John and Ritchie (Ringo). Although, I never went to their houses". http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/famous-friends/
- ZZ Top are some of my friends. Me and Dusty used to play together in a club called “The Cellar” in Fort Worth, and Houston". http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/famous-friends/
- "John Denver and I went to the same high school, his real name was John Deutchendorf. We used to hang out together in Ft. Worth and often went out to the desert and played at campfire parties. We never had much contact after John became known". http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/famous-friends/
- "I learned my first techniques on the sitar with Ravi Shankar". http://shawnphillips.wordpress.com/famous-friends/
- On the theatrical production "Jesus Christ Superstar": Question: Dr. Music: In the early 60’s you were asked to play the lead in the original production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" but declined the offer because of your heavy recording and touring schedules at the time. Do you ever look back and wish you had accepted that role? Answer: Shawn Phillips: “I didn’t decline the role. Robert Stigwood discovered that he couldn’t get a finger into my business pie, as it were, (or anything else for that matter), so he fired me. In retrospect, Ted Neeley can’t get arrested today, because he IS Jesus Christ Superstar, and cannot be seen in any other light. So I’m quite happy the way things turned out.” http://drmusic.org/Shawn_Phillips.html
- In relation to this album "Shawn Phillips confirmed that Steve played on "For RFK JFK & MLK", along with Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, and Dave Mason (many thanks to Shawn and his manager Arlo Hennings, 9/1999)…. In his book Eric Clapton: The Complete Recording Sessions, 1963-1992 (1993), Marc Roberty credits Eric Clapton with guitar on "Man Hole Covered Wagon". http://www.winwoodfans.com/cs/cssess04.htm
