Unearthing Heron, pt. 3

So a little bit of a different mixing – Moore’s guitar comes in the middle at the beginning and then pans over to the left; it seems to sort of pan around during the song. It’s an evocative song, arranged in parts as a round, much like Sally Goodin. With three voices that can sound very similar, a round is an interesting choice for exploiting these similarities.

Moore explains, “Both Roy and Tony had mid-range voices, singing mainly in unison with Roy singing some lines in harmony then returning to the melody and unison. This with the mid or slow tempos created a thick, almost carpet of sound. When I joined I added harmonies above them to add more color. In those days my voice had a higher tone and we got a blend easily and naturally.”

Credited to Pook and Apps, the title and subject seem strange for a pastoral setting. Pook particularly had said he didn’t like the initial recording sessions in the studio, and knowing that the album was recorded near the farmhouse where Pook’s family lived, you can hear the rural/urban divide in the lyrics and tone. We go straight from the farm of “Yellow Roses” to “city is all wet again/footsteps in the driving rain,” and the juxtaposition makes me think of a country boy recalling what he saw that day when he visited the nearby metropolis. There is rain, an attractive woman, and a car crash: melancholy, beauty, and (potentially) tragedy. This song also makes me think of Fairport Convention’s tragic 1969 bus crash.

Music wise, the song starts with bird call, and gentle picked guitar – presumably Apps, then joined by Moore picking a different pattern. When they both come in together, Pook sing in the left and Apps the right. Eventually Apps, then Pook, then Moore perform the song as a round on “Goodbye for now be yesterday/tomorrow will be Saturday.” Jones does not appear to be on the song. The song finishes off with silence and (I believe) Pook saying “there’s little black things all over the place,” to words of agreement by Moore and Apps.

Here’s Heron playing Car Crash in Bridport in 2009 without Moore, but with Jones, new member Gerry Power, and a violinist:

City is all wet again

And footsteps in the driving rain

Strike shadows in the dancing, glancing, taunting pain that frees the air

And your eyes take in the ensuing fun and I’ve seen the eyes of the only one for me.

Seen her eyes, been in her mind,
I’ve seen the face I know I’ll find

In a tiny room of yesterday, car crash in the street that day out in the city

Yes your smile was one that people saw in the garden place I’ve been before with you.

Goodbye for now will be yesterday

Tomorrow will be Saturday

Running damp of raindrops is as water paint to wash away thoughts of you

As your fingers play the gentle string that floats on air blown by the wind from sea.

Unearthing Heron, pt. 2

Yes, I got an email from G.T. Moore which was so cool. It really felt like a connection with a puzzle that you’re not going to be able to solve by yourself. And he helped me with those few nagging questions I had about figuring out these tracks. So here’s the beginning of the breakdown of Heron (1971).

There is faint birdsong from the beginning. Steve Jones’ delicate piano is on the right of the stereo mix, with Apps’ gentle guitar strumming central, and Moore’s ringing mandolin on the left. The combined fade-in effect is that of walking over a grassy hillock and discovering the band playing in a sun-lit field.

In delineating their voices, I would characterize Apps’ voice as the smoothest, which comes in central with his guitar. Peter Eden seems to have produced this with a live concert feeling – letting the stereo mix audibly dictate where each band member is, and what they are doing. However, he does not keep the same mix for each song – the band member who is singing lead vocals is usually front and center for the track.

This song presumably existed when Apps and Pook were a two-member band (before Moore and Jones joined), as it begins with a nice vocal interplay between those two bandmates. Pook joins on the first chorus on the right. His voice can be characterized as occasionally more nasal than the other two singers, though it's actually quite versatile -- I only recently learned that he was the singer on Moore song "The Devil" on their second album.

G.T. starts humming under the chorus, and then takes the next verse alone, on the left. I’ve had trouble characterizing Moore’s voice on the records – it can be perfectly complimentary and mild when he’s providing backing vocals, or have a freewheeling nature to it when he’s on lead. Mercurial then? Eventually on “Yellow Roses” they all sing together, in a very clever arrangement. The song fades out ending with Jones’ piano and wind and birdsong raising in volume.

Lyrically, the song seems to be a plea to a woman to accept a man who cannot offer as much as is expected from him. And it’s a rural setting (“there he stands on the farm”) and features the folk music archetype of the poor young dreamer boy, transfixed by windmills and only able to offer yellow (not red) roses – which traditionally means friendship more than romantic love. But his music is what makes him special (“no night bird will sing the songs he’ll sing you), and I wonder if this song originated with “I” instead of “he” as a more personal song from Apps, before it became a band song – it might’ve been odd for Pook to harmonize and say “I” instead of “he.” To tie this into our folk horror podcast, the main character is reminiscent of young, fragile Tom from Tam Lin or Red Shift – someone who needs to be held, because “it’s the only way.”

Here’s a video of the band performing the song in (I think) 2016. You’ll see that the division of work is similar, definitely an Apps-led piece. Right to left the band is Apps, Pook, Moore, Jones:

There he stands on the farm
With his eyes on the windmill
And his head goes round and round
Like the hours of the night will.

Yellow roses may be all he can bring you
But no night bird can sing the songs he'll sing you
So when he wants you, you have to stay
You have to hold him, it's the only way.
It's the only way.

And who knows where he hides
Only somewhere inside him
It's the only place he's found
Where no fences surround him
You might find him in the darkness kneeling
He's found no reason for this love he's feeling
So when he wants you now and again
Don't let the time slip past you all in vain
All in vain.

There he goes through hollow halls
Catch him now before he falls
As he tries to break the chains
That bind what’s gone to what remains

Yellow roses may be all he can bring you
But no night bird can sing the songs he'll sing you
So when he wants you, you just have to stay
You just have to hold him, it's the only way.
It's the only way.

Unearthing Heron, pt. 1

I went down a rabbit hole with the band Heron, like many people did I assume, after reading Electric Eden by Rob Young. I had been familiar with the book for awhile but hadn't really gotten down to reading it, because I assumed, incorrectly, it would contain the same stories about Nick Drake and Sandy Denny that I already knew. And I had thought that beautiful, sun-lit cover photo of a band playing in a field was of the Incredible String Band. Which it was not.

Miked Heron, not Mike Heron

The band was Heron, which though a majestic and evocative name for a British folk-rock band, was a name too similar in my mind to the name of Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band. I believe I had previously seen the band name and just assumed it was what Mike Heron called his solo project. (Even more unfortunate is that there's a new band named Heron, who released their first album in 2017. Sorry guys, we have the Internet now, couldn't you have Googled available names?)

But all that aside, when I finally listened to Heron's self-titled first album from 1970, the one they recorded in the field pictured above, I was entranced. The album opens with "Yellow Roses," a track which makes me feel like I had been hiking the National Trails and come upon a gathering of bards. Key to the album is the allowance (by producer Peter Eden) to include natural sounds from the British countryside: birds, insects, an airplane, the casual banter of band mates between songs. I just wanted to sit with them and listen, which is why Heron became my go-to walking and sitting in parks album.

Parklife. View from my favorite sitting spot.

This bucolic feeling, combined with lyrics that tied in synchronistically to the book I had been working on (The Druid of Royal Oak), meant that quickly I became hooked on Heron. And particularly the first album. Once I learned that they used bass and drums on their second (double!) album, and it wasn't recorded in the same field (unfair because it was also recorded outside) I wasn't ready for it. I had purchased the entirety of Heron's Dawn Anthology on iTunes which includes both albums plus bonus tracks, but I used the playlist function to ensure that I would only be listening to the original 13 songs. (As an aside, the bonus tracks and 1971's Twice As Nice & Half the Price are excellent too, and it was a nice treat when I finally decided to listen to them.)

But after listening to the album for weeks, I realized that I still didn't even know who I was listening to. The Discogs listing credits G.T. (Gerald) Moore as "Guitar, Mandolin, Harmonica, Piano, Vocals," Roy Apps as "Guitar, Piano, Vocals," Stephen Jones as "Piano, Organ, Electric Piano, Accordion, Vocals," and Tony Pook as "Vocals." And clearly there were several songwriters in the band as there were different people credited with each song. But still on each individual song I didn't knew who was singing. They all had very similar voices. I also realized I didn't even know who was who in the cover photo.

Took me awhile to figure out that left to right is Moore, Apps, Pook, and Jones. 

And much like that feeling you may have gotten when you first listen to the Beatles and maybe initially don't know who's who, I enjoyed the puzzle of trying to discern the differences in their voices. Producer Eden seemed to have assisted a little by separating the musicians left to right in the stereo mix with their instruments, which I also think is part of the reason you get that feeling of being in the middle of a performance when you listen to the album.

I started to assume that the lead singer for each song (and to be clear, multiple singers chime in on most songs) was the author listed for the song. But did that really make sense? And as I listened, other questions came up as well -- such as when I finally discerned that there were female voices on "Lord and Master." And when I discovered Heron's third album from 1983, I felt like the lead vocalist on two of my favorite songs "Open up the Road" and "Traveller's Song" seemed like a completely different singer than had appeared on Heron. Eventually I realized in order to really figure out the puzzle I would have to seek help online.

And eventually help arrived, in the form of an e-mail from G.T. Moore!

(to be continued) 

The Folk Horror Podcast Episode 16: A Photograph (1977)

John Griffith Bowen, 1924-2019

First we do some folk horror news, then we pay tribute to the late John Bowen by looking at his Play for Today episode "A Photograph."

Some of the folk horror news was old so I cut it from the episode. Most notably, Folk Horror Revival have released their massive two-volume tomes on "The Urban Wyrd" which you can find here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/folk-horror-revival/folk-horrorrevival-urban-wyrd-1-spirits-of-time/paperback/product-24154700.html

Here's "A Photograph" if you haven't seen it. There may be a better version out there.

Bowen's obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/29/john-bowen-obituary

A little bit of explanation -- Mike and I are often talking about "McGuffins" because early on in our recording (I believe during the Wicker Man episodes) Mike had talked for awhile about something he thought was a McGuffin which in editing I decided wasn't accurate so I removed it. Since then, we often mention whether something is or isn't a McGuffin, particular in regards to John Bowen, who wrote a book called The McGuffin (https://www.amazon.com/McGuffin-John-Bowen/dp/0871130181) which noticeably is about a film reviewer.

And here's the episode (though it's probably Summer where you are, are you sure you wouldn't rather just subscribe on your phone and listen while you take a walk?):

The Folk Horror Podcast Episode 15: Arcadia (2017), pt. 2

The second part of our conversation is now up.

Here's the trailer for Anchoress, you'll recognize several images from Arcadia:

While we're at it, here's The Moon and the Sledgehammer trailer:

And Requiem for a Village:

And here's the episode:

The Folk Horror Podcast Episode 14: Arcadia (2017), pt. 1

We're back and talking about Arcadia. Well, at least starting to talk about the film, you know how we take a little while sometimes. I'm remembering Monty Python's "Summarize Proust" competition in which one chorus of people was only able to sing "Proust in his first book wrote about, wrote about.." repeatedly before time was up.

Here's the interview with Paul Wright:

Here's the first part of our talk:

A Look at Traditional Folk Ceremonies of Britain

My brother Karl originally wrote the following post for his travel agency blog, but never ended up using it. So, he let me share it here, and you'll find that it ties nicely into Mike and my upcoming discussion of Paul Wright's Arcadia!

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I was hoping before the holiday of May Day (usually celebrated on May 1) to write a post about the traditional folk ceremonies of Britain.

Many tourists visit Britain without seeing any of these. You have to get “off the beaten track” and also check local calendars to be sure to catch one. Watch out for these on the traditional British holidays. Christmas and Easter of course, but also others such as May Day (May 1^st), Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, in other countries called “Carnival” or “Mardi Gras”), Guy Fawkes Night (“Remember, remember, the Fifth of November”), the feast day of St George — patron saint of England (April 23), Whitsun (fifty days after Easter), Oak Apple Day (May 29) and others. Often today the celebration is moved to the nearest Monday.

The precise details of each celebration of course differ depending on the particular holiday, but also differ between particular localities. I really could write a separate post on each one! Some elements are widespread, however. There is often a parade of people wearing traditional costumes. Folk dancing is also common, as are bonfires. And almost always the celebration concludes with everyone going to the pub for drinks. In fact, usually drink is consumed throughout the whole celebration, usually ale--which might be considered the English national beverage.

What are some of the specific customs? On Shrove Tuesday, in many villages the women compete in footraces while flipping pancakes in frying pans, while the young men participate in the original medieval version of football—a very violent sport with no limits to the number of players on a team. On various dates some villages have contests in gurning (the art of making a funny face). But many say the strangest custom is the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling, held each year at Whitsun in the village of Brockworth in Gloucester. A nine-pound cheese is rolled down the hill, which is the signal for a group of racers to take off after it, running on foot until the steepness and unevenness of Cooper’s hill makes each racer fall and start rolling themselves!

And where did these strange customs come from? Quite a few people want to believe that all of them come from a time before Christianity came to Britain, and so they are all left over pieces of much older religion. The supporters of this theory often like to talk about “fertility rites”. But when historians have looked at the records closely, they almost never find documents going back to pre-Christian times. More often the history of the custom seems to have been lost in “the mists of time." In some places, the tradition has gone on unbroken for many centuries, but in others the tradition had to be “revived” in recent decades, often because it was abolished by zealous Puritans or prudish Victorians.

British writer Jane Peyton described the attitudes behind these ceremonies in the introduction to her book Brilliant Britain:

“One thing that struck me during my research was that whilst the rituals and traditions are diverse, the participants share some common traits:

• They really join in the spirit of the activity: ‘No problem, I’ll wear a mask, ride backwards on that donkey and agree to fall off it a few times. Oh, and get us another pint while you’re at the bar will you, mate?’
• Their tongues are firmly in their cheeks: ‘And now, please welcome the trainer of this year’s world champion racing snail!’
• Their attitude can be very matter of fact: ‘Oh look, there’s a man dressed up as a straw dancing bear. Anyway, what were you saying about the bus being late?’
• Some of them don’t quite know why they take part, but no matter. Their predecessors did it, so they give it a go too; even if it means getting out of bed before dawn to deposit a few pennies on a stone at the top of a hill.
• There is no sense of ‘Aren’t we wacky?’: people participate wholeheartedly, as though it is commonplace to gather in an orchard, hang pieces of toast from an apple tree and pour cider on its roots.”

It’s important then to note that in no place in these attitudes are the British thinking about tourists. These customs have never existed to entertain tourists. Generally, the participants and the spectators are local people. These events will take place every year on schedule whether or not any tourists come to watch. But during these celebrations the already friendly British become even more welcoming to visitors. They love to meet people who show an interest in this important aspect of British community life.

So the next time you visit Britain, be sure to keep your eyes open for one of these traditional local celebrations!

-- Karl Paananen