Entertainment For Lively Minds
Lewis Taylor - god-like genius (?)
Great article in the new-flying-off-newsagents'-shelves-due-to-semi-nude-Iggy-cover Word by Paul McGee about the deeply enigmatic and strangely under-revered Lewis Taylor
Here's what Last FM says
"Influenced in equal parts by Todd Rundgren, Scott Walker, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, The Beach Boys and Yes, his music has been described as ‘psychedelic soul in the broadest sense’"
Sounds great doesn't it? So why isn't he massive?
Actually, maybe its that eclecticism that makes it hard to know how to place him. On Spotify, they suggest Joss Stone, Jamiroquai and Craig David as similar artists. No - that's a playlist for Scunthorpe's scariest hen night ever.
I do like him. Admire him. But I fall short of love, like - bit like the hen above for her intended.
Think somehow his material doesn't quite hang together and the whole not as good as the constituent parts. Weirdly, for someone so catholic in their claimed influences - his songs can sound a bit samey.
And yet I want to go all the way with him. I want to love him. For his enigma, for his principles, for his talent.
As the article points out - a dearth of You Tube clips - but here's a Spotify link for "Limited Edition" - my current favourite album of his.
So god-like genius - or not?
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Based on what I have heard
I would agree with you.
I'm gonna give the album a listen, let's see if I recant.
He's too much of a fan
I find there's a gap between what he loves and his love, if you know what I mean. It's the Paul Weller thing, sometimes his love of the music he's influenced by gets in the way of real emotion and can leave you cold.
Brilliantly put...
...I write this whilst listening to him for the first time on Spotify and frankly all I can hear are influences. He's Marvin Gaye-ing like mad at the moment.
I too
...dusted off "The lost album" and listened to it yesterday after reading the Word article. It is well played etc but I too find it hard to love, partly I think because I have limited tolerance for falsetto "souly" voices, lots of "do do do" in layered harmonies etc. I can't abide the Beach Boys for similar reasons. However, "Yeah" from that album which was on a Word CD I think is great. I have a version of "Frankenstein" (the Edgar Winter track) done live by LT - again very clever, but so what.
First Album: Fantastic
Second a bit disappointing in comparison but still the second best british 'soul' album in the last 20 years. guess what the first was? I think LT's weakness might have been that he is too talented. He can write, play or sing anything he wants. Check the harmonies in the bridge of Bittersweet and the way the groove transforms into the final chorus and outro - sublime. And Heart of the Sunrise is both inspired and bonkers.
that's a nice line of thought
but is it too much talent in itself - or just an inability to focus it, to channel it?
Or maybe, he just lacks the craft to be able to write a song pure and simple without getting all twiddly about it.
I like the too much talen thing though - perhaps the paradigm being Prince?
I was thinking the same thing
...this morning listening to him on the train - his musical excellence can hide what are often fairly generic and uninteresting songs, which initially sound impressive because he plays them so well, but they don't really grab you.
Sad article
The first album and "Stoned Part 1" should be enough to guarantee him some sort of "legacy." His B-sides were also tremendous - "Waves" and "Lewis III" are fantastic tracks as good as anything on those albums, definitely worth tracking down.
I've a horrible feeling it's all down to image though. I saw him play live twice, the last time on his birthday in 2003 at the Jazz Cafe, and though he's a brilliant musician and singer, he looks like the janitor, come early to sweep up - it shouldn't matter, but it does...
Very sad indeed if that's the last we hear of him.
Don't know about genius, but...
if he'd never recorded anything other than Lucky, the first song from his debut (as Lewis Taylor, I mean, I've never heard the Sherrif Jack stuff), he'd still have a claim to greatness. It's uncannily good, perfect in fact, from the first dry rattle, to the intro as it builds, with that snaky bassline and the half-asleep rhythm guitar. And I think it's a great song too, not just a great groove. Indeed, he appeared at the Kashmir Klub a few times, and played Lucky, with just an acoustic guitar; it still sounded brilliant.
The rest of the debut is consistently good, especially Bittersweet and Spirit, though without the magic of that first song. Second album is definitely not as good, with the best song being Jeff Buckley's Everybody Here Wants You. The Lost Album is fine.
If we've heard the last of Lewis Taylor, I'll be sad. He's a true maverick, and so bloody talented that I'd always be interested to hear what he came up with.
Under the influence
Might not that list of influences be the very reason why people like Lewis Taylor are not big? There's an increasing amount of music on the market made by people with impeccable taste and great skill which nonetheless never quite manages to transcend those influences. Twenty years later a "Beautiful Loser" cult starts to gather around the artist. What drives that cult is the very fact that they're *not* massive. Their being not massive is one of the great things they've got going for them. If Lewis Taylor had had a couple of hits then the shine would be off him altogether.
What about just the one hit?
If Lucky had been a one-off hit, as it could have been with a bit of luck (I know...) and a following wind, I think that would almost have enhanced his cult status, because then the cultists would be able to jog the memories of non-devotees by referring to it, then earbash them by telling them how great the rest of his stuff was. They'd also have an opportunity to get proper cross when, on the mention of his name, they'd get the response "Oh yeah, I remember him, he only had that one song didn't he?"
If no one has heard of singer x, then it's nowhere near as much fun for the devotees. As an example of this, I'm fascinated by Flash and the Pan, for a number of reasons: their music was so singular; the connection with AC/DC; the connection with the Easybeats. If they hadn't had That Hit, there'd be nothing to talk about except in the unlikely event that I knowingly encountered a fellow enthusiast. As it is, a lot of people remember them because of Waiting For A Train.
dying young
is a crowd-pleaser too.
I think, I believe, that James Dean' s a great actor and Nick Drake is a great singer/writer. I'm not sure how much of the myth I'm breathing in as much as the oxygen of their talent.
Hear what you say about LT - but I want to reach out to him as that kind of single-minded pursuit of - crikey - "an artistic vision" is increasingly rare in our techno-fragmented, Cowell-driven music universe.
The real puzzle is that his work is not intrinsically non-commercial. Quite the opposite in fact. As the cover of "Lovelight" by Stoke's finest shows.
I agree with Metal Mickey that it would be sad indeed if he has disappeared into the ether once and for all.
Lewis Taylor
Check (the various) versions of 'Song' and 'Track'. For me, those cuts alone confirm Taylor's status as a wholly exceptional talent.
Genius indeed.