The Lighthouse Family - surely time for a reappraisal...?!
Posted by Chimney Singing Crow on 15 May 2008 - 4:12pm.
Veering wildly from style to style, it would have been so easy for their focus to have become blurred - to spread themselves too thinly - but their sheer conviction and commitment to their vision pulled them through to create some of the most inspiring and visionary music of the late twentieth century.
Together with Level 42, Mike and the Mechanics and of course Bryan Adams, they set the clock back to year Zero.
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They did
of course get a mention on The Royle Family. The daft husband won a TV quiz about them.
" ...I've got everything they ever did, me".
That apart, I sense the beginnings of the silly season.
So, can I suggest the Eddie Money reappraisal? Sponsored by Homer Simpson.
Hey!
It's Friday tomorrow!
Let's make it reappraisal Friday.
More candidates?
Lindsay Buckingham
Just because it's been so ridiculously overplayed that everyone's been sick to death of it for the last 30 years doesn't mean Rumours isn't a pop masterpiece.
Of course it's a masterpiece...
It's just worth noting that Fleetwood Mac, its predecessor, has been ridiculously underplayed since Rumours hit the racks. FM (or The White Album to fans) marked the Mac's metamorphosis from creditable blues band to pop masters of the universe and was Lindsay's template for just about everything that followed - to the extent that Rumours had fade-ins on exactly the same track numbers as FM.
And it's just occurred to me - it has never been titled Rumors in other "territories" as a sop to the hard of thinking.
I was one of the eleven people. . .
who bought Buckingham Nicks as an import soon after it came out. The audience at the Pistols' Lesser Free Trade Hall junket was a teeming throng compared to us.
(Hmm. Interesting, that. Going on to work with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie would be usually be considered an upgrade.)
Apparently, and bizarrely, BN has never been issued on CD. What's all that about?
I'd go further, and say that, ,
from the various claims I have read, there were at least 150,000 people at that Pistols' gig, so it was a small eastern-european principality in comparison, let alone a teeming throng.
Oh God...
...that Free Trade Hall gig, what a fuss! I laughed and was tempted to cheer when I read in Word recently about one of the guys from Joy Division dismissing it with the legendary, even laconic 'I thought it was shite'.
I like some of those Buckingham/Nicks-driven Fleetwood Mac records. 'Rumours' is still great and has stood the test of time well. 'Tango In The Night' perhaps less so due to the dodgy 80s production values, but there's still some great songs on it.
Hooky
Hooky thinks everything is shite. Except his royalties. He likes them.
On CD
Amazon US has Buckingham Nicks on CD at $12.99 -
http://www.amazon.com/Buckingham-Nicks-%2B-Bonus/dp/B000972AKM/ref=pd_bb...
reappraisal day
Alrighty then!!
Due for serious reappraisal coz they are dead good
Stackridge especially "Friendliness" "Extravaganza" and Pinafore Days"
Sly Stone's "Fresh"
Bob Dylan's "Self Portrait"
Kevin Coyne
Donovan
Slade-a better singles band than Oasis. Discuss
Man-Britain's greatestlive band ever???
Ian Dury's "Do It Yourself" featuring the greatest UK funk band backing Lord Upminster in his pomp and at least the equal of "New Boots and Panties"
Kate Bush's "Aerial" a recent release that should not be allowed to fade from sight without a good serious reexamination.
and what about a reappraisal of the overrated
Bob Dylan's "Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times (a severe critical overreaction on their initial release) Discuss.
Syd Barrett's solo stuff
Brian Wilson anyone.
Skip Spence "Oar" (please re-listen it stinks)
With you on these.
Stackridge - Yup, well liked local band for us yer in the West. I've just got the reissues on Angel Air.
Kevin Coyne - Sadly missed, huge talent. Had a nice email reply from his missus when I bought one of his CDs last year.
Donovan - I've always stood up for him. Too many dodgy cheapo compilations diluted his cred. Plus the odd crap album, it has to be said, but loads of really good stuff to outweigh them.
Slade - piss all over the Gallaghers.
Man - Oh boy, the times I've spent grinning like a monkey and singing along to "Bananas".
Ian Dury - the guvnor, especially for sweary bits.
Kate Bush - did she ever need RE-appraisal? She's always been an individual maverick, and I don't know anyone who's ever thought she was anything other than ace.
Kate
Never was all that keen on Kate Bush. I absolutely hated Wuthering Heights - four minutes of screechy nonsense. Dave Gilmour, what were you thinking?
I worked with a guy who played the Hounds of Love album on heavy rotation. I hate that, too. It so eighties and so modern and I hate it and I heard it five or six times a day for three years and I hate it even more.
However, Never Forever was quite charming, and Aerial was actually quite good in parts. These are the only records of hers that I would give house room to.
There.
Kate Bush
I get the impression, maybe because of her reclusiveness, that this album has already sadly slipped off the radar. It really is a work of genuine brilliance.
and yes the same grin still affixes itself to my mug on hearing Banana's wonderful opening pounding riff which they could play for a good half hour (and they often did) without losing my trance-like concentration. Great stuff!!
Bertie
I wish Kate Bush would stop banging on about her kid on "Aerial". I don't care about how much she loves her motherhood status. One track on the subject and no more. If someone can give me a listing for a re-arranged version missing every mention of motherhood/Bertie/Rolf Harris then I'll rip it onto my MP3 player.
seconded
love la Bush but the Bertie stuff is self indulgent twaddle - always thought that one about Bolan and Moonie leading the show in heaven was trite too.
Comfort Music
There's something very comforting about the Lighthouse Family;like a big bar of dairy milk. Would never buy any of their albums, but there's far worse things in the world.
Lighthouse
Check out the acoustic version of Ocean Drive. It's on one of their CD singles (available at a car boot sale near you) if you can be bothered. Absolutely yummy. Not very fashionable, but hey...
Lighthouse Family...
...as the post above hints, they are just there. Just musical wallpaper, really.
As for some reappraisals here?
Love Man; am especially fond of that 20-odd minute blow-out of 'C'Mon' with the Welsh choir on 'Back Into The Future'. Favourite album is probably 'Rhinos Winos and Lunatics'. They are kind of how I'd hoped The Grateful Dead would sound!
I have a Stackridge best-of which is heartily entertaining, so I say let them in!
Have a fair few Donovan albums, 'Sunshine Superman' is my favourite. Was playing a collection called 'Strange Folk' the other day and a track by him from that album of children's songs/fairytales he did called 'HMS Donovan' (used to have it on vinyl, was a very charming record) stood up well amongst the more recent fare by Devendra Banhart and Espers.
Only have one Kevin Coyne album, 'Marjory Razorblade'. Always liked 'Marlene' on that one.
Syd Barrett's solo career isn't terribly substantial but amongst the unlistenable moments which clearly reveal he was indeed 'Long Gone', there are some gems; 'The Madcap Laughs' has a lot of songs I like but that stuff like 'If It's In You' should never have been released. 'Barrett' is even less consistent, despite a fuller sound.
I nominate a few slightly lesser known acts from the blues rock spectrum; those early Groundhogs albums- in my mind, only the Fleetwood Mac of the 1969-70 period took such a progressive approach to blues rock in the UK. Keef Hartley's early albums are damned good too, especially 'Halfbreed'. Possibly Blodwyn Pig's 'Ahead Rings Out' too...
Dare I?
Spent a lot of time in the early 70's, cross-legged on the floor and with my eyes shut, grooving to Man and their one-track-sides. I have really fond memories of it all, but dare I go back? 30+ years on? I'm just going to be disappointed, aren't I?
give it a try
you might be pleasantly suprised,drop the crosslegged stance and find a nice comfy chair, glass of wine, headphones turn her up to 11 !!!
The worst thing
about The Lighthouse Family, surely, is their inability to provoke an extreme reaction in anyone.
I'll give you an extreme reaction.
They are the epitome of bland, unchallenging and insipid wallpaper music. They have one dreary, mid-paced song that they re-hash time after time after time. Their singer has a range that starts at A and just about reaches B. They take music and strip out everything that makes it worthwhile in the first place - emotion, excitement, passion, energy. Even Mick Hucknall, Sting and any other bete noir of the Word massive you may care to mention, all have more musical ability in a single toenail than the Lighthouse Family. They have a stupid name. They are to popular music what the Findus Crispy Pancake is to haute cuisine. I despise them with an absolute passion.
That do?
Spot
on.
We've nailed it!
Despite not liking the records, Lighthouse Family songs always make me smile. They sound so bored and disinterested that I imagine them doing several takes of the same song and suddenly declaring "That's the one!". I wonder how much more soulless the other takes were that what we hear was the best.
That's more like it
I remember saying pretty much that about ten years ago and someone called me a racist.
Jamiroquai
All sound the same, none very interesting, stupid hat.
errr
hats (fucking loads of 'em)
Elvis
...Costello went both off the boil and bonkers once he started wearing hats. Maybe it's something to do with cooling a fevered brain or something?
McManus
Lost it completely after he left Stiff records. Don't you think?
Congrats to Chimney
for communicating cheekness of tongue with such aplomb.
I will admit, however, to a fondness for one or two Mike & The Mechanics songs.
Me too...
...though Mike Rutherford's debut album 'Smallcreep's Day' was much better and less MOR/adult contemporary than anything he did with the Mechanics to my ears. Still, I quite like 'Silent Running' and dare I admit it, 'The Living Years'.
What's...
...black and white and has two arseholes?
The Lighthouse Family.
Ta-ta
Jesus! It's like being back in the sixth form common room in 1972. Edgar Broughton, Zappa, Beefheart, Bonzos, Roy Harper, Fairports & Rory Gallagher (see elsewhere). Kevin Coyne. Man. Groundhogs. I'm clearly in the wrong place!
GeoffWashington (aged 52 and three quarters) has left the building.
I'd like to say
he will be missed, but to be honest I hadn't noticed the name around the threads.
To be fair
Mrs Washington's boy quite possibly protesteth too much but I have to confess there's a fair few posts here that evoke the same mental image...
No disagreement about the posts
But this is a free forum and you can start threads on pretty much any topic you like. Fraser will sort you out if its verboten.
I wish...
...I'd kept that scoop-necked t-shirt and the Levi jacket with the sewn-on patches.