What's the best spoken word and music?
Posted by David Hepworth on 27 March 2008 - 9:29am.
"Passengers" is one of the tracks on the next "Now Hear This" CD. The music is by a Dutch musician called Stephen Emmers. The voice is Lou Reed's. I think it's the first time we've had what you might call a recitation on the CD and it reminded me how much I like a bit of spoken word.
When Chris Difford was on the podcast the other day he talked about how he once opened a radio programme with Dirk Bogarde reciting.
Jude Rogers introduced me to Elizabeth Taylor's splendid recital of Wordsworth's "Upon Westminster Bridge" from a record arranged by John Barry.
Any more bright ideas?
Bookmark/Search this post with:
- More from David Hepworth.
- Login or register to post comments
Beam me up, Scotty...
I am declaring from the outset that there is no better example of spoken word set to music than the scintillating William Shatner on his first album 'The Transformed Man'... the title accurately describing my good self after just one listen!!
No Sell Out
Go find No Sell Out/Malcolm X and listen to it again - it will still induce goosebumps. A really powerful blend of declamatory spoken word and sparse electro. All put together by ace drummer Keith le Blanc. At the time the T shirts were well hip, too.
Previously name checked...
...but Emmylou Harris' Jerusalem Tomorrow, spoken, not sung, is a delight.
Ivor Cutler is always a delight, but, rather than his own work, his version, along with ex-Oyster Ian Kearey, of Wheely Down is exceptional. It's on the first Richard Thompson tribute LP, The World is a Wonderful Place.
Erratum: I yesterday mistakenly muddled up (or was it deliberate?) this LP with the 2nd tribute, which is, of course, Beat the Retreat. Call yourself fans: not a single outraged reply!!
Ivor Cutler...
on Robert Wyatt's 'Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road' from Rock Bottom.
Magnificent.
Betjeman
did several fab records with Jim Parker's orchestral backing. Highly recommended.
The Richard Burton
version of Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood is well worth seeking out.
True , but his reading of
True , but his reading of Donne love poems to be avoided like the plague
Van Morrison
Rave On John Donne on Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart album has Van Morrison doing some talking over a jazz vamp musical background. He's not reciting a poem or anything, just thought I'd mention this FYI.
Van recites Blake
Let the Slave on A Sense of Wonder is based on the poem The Price of Experience by William Blake with music arranged by Mike Westbrook. The Gruff one is gruff but somehow it works wonderfully.
But my favourite
is the Michael Smith album, "Mi Cyaan Believe It", with music by Dennis Bovell.
I love dub poetry, and this is top quality stuff. Sadly its never been available on CD for some unfathomable reason. Can you pull any strings, David?
What he said...
...and I am led to understand Mr V, that an assiduous Google search - maybe two or three pages in - of the album title may be of interest and value to you...
Happily
I have a good vinyl copy, which has yielded a fine CD-R backup.
:)
I'd like to see the album re-released properly though, partly in case LKJ/Dennis Bovell have any more interesting Mikey material to add to it; it's barely 35 minutes long.
And, whilst with poets,
....the flat manc tones of John Cooper Clarke befit his content marvellously.
I never get bored of these two
Sean Connery - In My Life
"There are placshes I'll remember"
William Shatner - Common People.
A swelling and stirring reading
Apart from the obvious...
...Phil Daniels on Parklife and David Byrne on Once In a Lifetime, I have a soft sport for Johnny Cash's recitation of the Gettysburg Address from America: A 200 Year Salute in Story and Song and Michelle Shocked's haunting tale of police brutality on Graffitti Limbo.
William Shatner's music is indeed great, but check out Leonard Nimoy's version of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now - it's ace.
John Barry
After the Elizabeth Taylor record he made Sophia Loren in Rome, which is also good.
My favourite spoken word/music combination are some of the radio broadcasts of Joe Frank. Great voice, great storytelling, atmospheric music. Here's a short example.
I think I have something in my eye
Similarly...
And
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Another great dub poet, largely forgotten now but essential listening in his day.
Another mention for John Cooper Clarke - his "Evidently Chickentown" was an inspired selection on a recent Sopranos episode.
Word Jazz!
It's high time someone mentioned the great Ken Nordine...
On a less exalted level...
... there is Pat Campbell
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/08/365-days-243---.html
The Dame
Does Bowie doing "Peter and The Wolf" count.?
And What about Rappers ?,surely they talk over music.
The Last Poets,Gil Scott Heron,Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy ?
Twee core strikes back
It may have got over played but the use of spoke word sections in Belle and sebastian/looper tunes was good at fist. Also arab strap "first big weekend of the summer" is a good tune see also some of the tindersticks songs.
We should mention the saucy posh girl stylings of Black Box record.
I am, weary of the poems set to music angle, I heard the lou reed on the radio and was a bit meh about it! It does miss the point that poems aren't always songs and that a good poem stands up by it's self without a tune etc.
also does Lou Reed ever really sing?
And of Course this
Here's the God-like genius of Ken Nordine
That's Kenneth to you...
Where did you find this track? - It's even more nonsensical than the 'colors' stuff- no mean feat.
For some reason...
...no-one's yet mentioned My Sister by Tindersticks.
For lots of good reasons, no-one's yet mentioned that Baz Luhrmann thing that got to number 1 a few years back
Or even....
"No charge".
Probably
all rap and hip hip as, according to my father, it is 'all just talking'
No, "it's two people on a stage shouting"
That's what Frank Skinner once said about a gig by The Streets.
Obscure as it is
Mortal City by Dar Williams is my favourite
John Trudell
Native North American JT has released a couple of spoken word albums but the quality varies from track to track on the one I've heard, Johnny Damas and Me.
In another thread I mentioned Sir John Betjeman. Banana Blush is an excellent album, and there are a couple more. Viv Stanshall's Sir Henry at Rawlinson End is a cornucopia of wit and wordplay. Ndidi's Kraal doesn't work so well.
Also mentioned in another thread was Robbie Robertson's Somewhere Down The Crazy River which is worth another listen. He also had a spoken word track on another album based around a taped conversation with an imprisoned American Indian rights activist.
There's also The Jeweller on John Cale's Slow Dazzle album and I don't think anyone above mentioned that Velvet Underground track (The Gift?).
Another JT, Jethro Tull, also had The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles, but the less said about that the better.
John Betjeman
I love Jim Parker's music on 'Banana Blush'. Even if the old sod slagged off my home town of Slough these are wonderful recordings.
as well as the indoor games (fnarr, fnarr)
his Late FLowering Love is another gem, again with Jim Parker.
Betjamin
Got to agree there both albums are beautiful.
Also John Cooper Clarke's brilliant "Valley of the Lost Women" From Disguise in Love, great production job by Martin Hannett here too.
But does Mark E Smith count as singing or shouting or even speaking if so I would plump for the timeless "Rebellious Jukebox"
Sir Henry
....at Rawlinson End. Viv Stanshall. Didn't really like the movie much but the album was brilliant. And while we're at it "The intro and the outro" from "Gorilla" and the end of side 1 of "Tubular Bells". Who recently pointed out that all threads naturally end with the Bonzos?
Pure class
Although I do get some odd looks when I'm listening to it...
The Bonzos
There are worse places to end.
"I see you have the same trouble with your trousers as I do..."
Anyone heard Sebastian Cabot reading Dylan?
Brother Baker would wet himself on-air while playing the fruity-voiced actor's recitations of Dylan's 'poetry' backed by a string quartet. Think Peter Sellers' Hard Day's Night done straight (not that Sellers' effort is at all funny) :
'It ain'T me, babe. No. No. No. It ain'T me. Babe. It ain'T me. You're looking. For. Babe'
But back to great spoken word, Stuart Maconie played Jack Kerouac reciting On The Road on The Freak Zone the other week & I could at last see the point of it.
What did Stuart do?
speed it up from 33 to 45?
Speech Therapy
We spoke of spoken word recently (no harm in revisiting it):
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/talking-head
I like the Lee Hazlewood tale "Hilli (At the Top of the World)".
Tom Waits' "Frank's Wild Years" was going to be mentioned eventually. And "Step Right Up". Nick Cave's "The Carny" too.
I know it's straying outside the "with music" category, but I also like Quentin Crisp reading "Stop The Music For A Minute", Kenneth Williams reading "Jabberwocky", Stanley Holloway (or Jarvis Cocker) reading "The Lion and Albert" and Peter Sellers' acting out "Can't Buy Me Love" (it's funnier than his "A Hard Day's Night").
Viv Stanshall, Ivor Cutler and Burton reading Thomas all get my vote too.
Ringo doing Thomas the Tank.
Seriously. So much better than the apalling impersonation that popped up somewhere recently on the telly.
Jeez Retro....
...It's not 'Thomas the Tank'. It's Thomas the Tank ENGINE.
He is a steam engine, not a war machine.
Is there a big gun thing sticking out of his forehead?
No, I don't think so.
Standards man.
Six small wheels, a short, stumpy boiler…
Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned the definitive voice of Thomas the Tank Engine et al is Johnny Morris - in the days before the dreaded Britt Allcroft ruined the whole thing.
Satin Black Tour Jacket
Satin Black Tour Jacket (with detatchable sleeves) by the mighty Half Man Half Biscuit.
Taking in the identical Cocteau Twins, I Can`t Believe It`s Not Focus (best joke about prog ever; are you knackered, man? No, I`m Jan Akkerman), PFM, (H)ELP and Rough Trade, Talulah Gosh, Michael Stipe and a Dogs D`Amour satin black....you get the picture, it set the standard for HMHB spoken word diatribes.
Preposterous Tales by I, Ludicrous is not technically spoken is it? Unless all Pet Shop Boys songs are too.
I know you don't have a dancing bear....
...but are the Shropshire SS who I saw REM with at Old Trafford a few years back?
Shropshire SS; Tank Commander
No, I`m not, but it sounds like I missed a treat. I always use the `dancing bear ` test as regards fellow travellers; if they say "hey dancing bear" on hearing my name, far from being pissed off with another lame ass joke, I appreciate their musical chops. Extra brownie points for mention of Randy Newman.
Even if most only heard it on The Muppet Show album
Alan Price
never really got much credit for being one of the early Newmanophiles; I like his version best actually.
Never mind!
And it was, actually a treat, 2003 compared to the more pedestrian 2005 0r 6, I forget which. With Badly Drawn Boy as support on a scorcher of a sunday afternoon.
Mr Cale also has a fine speaking voice
Even if he does look rather like he's in a german expressionist silent film. Bit of art history in honour of Andy Warhol:
"The trouble with a
"The trouble with a classicist" - try saying that three times fast after a sherbet or two.
A Dream is my favourite track from that album
The Gift from White Light/White Heat by the Velvet Underground is another cracker
No One Would Have Believed
I still have a fondness for Jeff Wayne's musical version of "War Of The Words"-Richard Burton's spoken passages are terrific! Great listen too in the dark stuff!
The William Shatner album is great too!
Phil Lynott...
is a total legend on that album too. Charisma to burn...
Stolen Child
by The Waterboys. Superb.
Mike Scott...
...does indeed have an attractive lilt, also as characterised on Jackie Leven/Forbidden Songs of the Dying West CD, unlike some of the clunkier spoken word pieces cropping up elsewhere on Mr L's repertoire, such as Robert Bly on the preceding The Mystery of Love is greater than the Mystery of Life. Mr L always sounds good, singing or speaking, but I haven't heard his spoken word only release, "Chip Pan Fire", under another of his pseudonyms*, Jackie Balfour. has anyone?
*Sir Vincent Lone, John St. Field
Great Scott
An attractive lilt? He's from Edinburgh, why does he speak like he's an extra from Darby O'Gill And The Little People? His spoken word piece 'The Return Of Jimi Hendrix' is hilarious, for all the wrong reasons.
When he speaks in his native accent, I mean.....
Or, I expect, sings. I agree his irish affectation is a bit twee, (which is why I like 7 yellow gypsies on Room to Roam, cos it's sung with a scots accent)
Record straightening
I have to put you right. The vocalist on Stolen Child was Tomás McKeown, a traditional Irish storyteller or Shanachie. The real deal not some Disney shite, and a grand job he makes of it. The lyricist of the piece was W.B.Yeats. Mike Scott and the boys provided the music only.
Is it OK to profit from crime?
It may be morally wrong to put forward a convicted killer as a contender for the title - but 400 Blows using a Charles Manson interview where the interviewer tells Manson to 'come down from his space shuttle' and setting this to an incredibly delicate musical backdrop has to come under consideration. Can't remember the name of the track though...
I hunted the world for a cd copy of this... (via the internet)
"Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" by the Bostweeds has a stupendous spoken word intro. I think its taken directly from the film of that name. Its a long (sixty seconds or so) warning about the dangerous new breed of women. He concludes with the words, "Who are they? One might be your secretary, your doctor's receptionist, or a dancer in a go-go club!"
Its the same song the Cramps play on the Mini Lp "Smell of Female", in fact the intro is where they would have taken that particular title.
I played it for a female friend of mine once and her sole comment was "That man's a pervert" Couldn't disagree with her. Great song though.
Faster Pussycat...
The original version is to be found, I believe, on the Born Bad compilation. And it is indeed from Russ Meyer's 1965 sleazo masterpiece of the same name.
Faster Pussycat
Thanks,
The Born Bad compilation is exactly where I ended up finding it. It's a six disc series and the song in question is on Volume 1.
I ended up getting all six discs. They are full of the same sort of stuff, music for juvenile delinquents in the 50's and 60's, with songtitles like "Jailbait" and "The Girl on Death Row."
It's priceless stuff.
Pretty obvious choice really but ......
....its gotta be any of the soliloquys by Tom Waits. Somebody's already mentioned "Frank's Wild Years" - heh heh still love that line about the house going up in flames all 'Halloween orange and chim-er-ney red', but there's also the barking "What's he building in there?", the eerie "9th and Hennepin", and my personal favourite "Shore Leave" - I used to work away from home, a lot of it overseas, in my last job and this song reminds me of times spent apres-travails knocking back some cold ones with workmates in some distant bar, although I've never ''shot billiards with a midget until the rain stopped'!
I strongly advise you to
I strongly advise you to seek out "Lithuania"by Dan Bern.Not completely spoken word but one of my favourites.Also "Choochtown"by Hamell on trial.
.
Choochtown is great!
DAN BERN
I'm with you on both of these guys, Tezzyboy. To those that don't know - Dan Bern is the great undiscovered solo artist of our times. And LITHUANIA is one of his best efforts. He's serious in the best possible way, he's mordantly funny and he is a dynamite live performer, tackling subjects like the Holocaust and the differences between blacks and whites with depth and wit. Starting point: check out the song TIGER WOODS - about the importance of having balls "the size of small dogs". Having said all that, his last album was kinda disappointing.
Wild Bill
Burroughs album with Michael Franti 'Spare Ass Annie' is very good, especially the Christmas track 'The Immaculate Fix'. Also mentions for Burroughs (again!) on Material's 'Seven Souls' album, Roger McGough's 'Summer With Monica'(mid-70's on EMI anyone?); John Cooper Clarke's albums with Vini Reilly and Bill Nelson and Seamus Heaney's album with Uilleann piper Liam 0'Flynn is a celtic treat.
Dame C Grogan
The B-side of Altered Images 'Dead Pop Stars' is called 'Arena'; and there's a little bit where young Miss Grogan says "it's a nice dream, you'd like it" which always made me go a bit wobbly.
Godspeed you! black emperor
Love the deranged intro to Blaise Bailey Finnegan III. Music is stunning too.
This great evil, where does it come from?
The best track with spoken word EVER is Have You Passed Through This Night by the mighty Explosions In The Sky. It is the only song of theirs with words and I have no idea where they came from, but they add a certain level of chill to the otherwise instrumental powerhouse. There is some spooky Fripp-esque guitar at 2.10 for those inclined. Watch it and tell me I'm right.
You're right.
There IS some spooked up Frippy guitar in there.
I like this "post-rock" stuff, Godspeed! and so on, and this is up there with the best I've heard. The video works really well with the music, too.
I seem to recall...
...that the only spoken word charting single was Steptoe + Son at Buckingham Palace. Definitely glad I added it to my collection, anyway...
What about (the aforementioned)
"No charge"? Country weepy as the parent extols the pricelessness of the burdens of care....
Shocking rubbish, c. about 1975
Timothy Leary, deary
I've always been partial to Timothy Leary's spoken word trip "YOU CAN BE ANYONE THIS TIME AROUND" which was released on CD by Rykodisc in 1992, but originally put together for Leary's candidacy for Governor of California in 1970.On the opening track, Leary raps for 14 minutes (he credits his vocal as a "rap") that we should all "LIVE AND LET LIVE" whilst his backing band engage in a terrific bit of psychedelic noodling. The backing band? Stephen Stills and John Sebastian on electric guitars, Buddy Miles on drums and some dude named Jimi Hendrix on bass. The sentiments on the other tracks (YOU CAN BE ANYONE... and WHAT DO YOU TURN ON WHEN YOU TURN ON) are equally stoned but beautiful. As someone who uses his vocal chords to earn a crust, I have to say that this Leary guy was the business; he gets my vote. Oh and his campaign slogan was popularized by the Beatles: "Come Together".
Paris, Texas
Lovely soundtrack but the one that stops me in my tracks everytime is the bit with Harry Dean Stanton, " I knew these people ", the lovely guitar slowly appears and the occassional "yep " from Natassja Kinski. Very sad, very beautiful and very good.
Joolz
"Hex" and "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know".
Beautiful, if bleak, poetry, gorgeous Yorkshire accent, musical accompaniment by Justin Sullivan and other NMA members. Hard to Top.
The Last Word on words...
No better place surely than with The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan, a mighty conceptual non-spoken word LP from the mid-80s. Disturbingly googling the title reveals not the record label, damn, but a host of for-real books with exactly that title. And I'm for Laurie Anderson too, as well as O superman there's a great airline pilot spoken word track on Big Science that has her soothing tones saying 'We're going down' over and over'
The killer spoken word bridge in 50s records
I think it was a throwback to Inkspot records when the bass singer ruminated on life. the rubettes revived the tradition.
Little Darlin' by the Diamonds
My darlin'
I NEED you
To call my own
And NEVER do wrong
To hold in mine
Your little hand
I'll know too soon
That ALL is so grand
PLEASE, hold my hand
Elvis - are you lonesome tonight
I wonder if youre lonesome tonight
You know someone said that the worlds a stage
And each must play a part.
Fate had me playing in love you as my sweet heart.
Act one was when we met, I loved you at first glance
You read your line so cleverly and never missed a cue
Then came act two, you seemed to change and you acted strange
And why Ill never know.
Honey, you lied when you said you loved me
And I had no cause to doubt you.
But Id rather go on hearing your lies
Than go on living without you.
Now the stage is bare and Im standing there
With emptiness all around
And if you wont come back to me
Then make them bring the curtain down
and of course the spoken intro....
"You broke my heart 'cause I couldn't dance; you didn't even want me around. But now I'm back ... to let you know ... I can really shake 'em down."
"What number is this, Jim? 7A. OK... don't get excited, man. Just cause I'm short, I know"
"Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing (yeah go ahead!)
I wanta get into it, man, you know (go ahead!)"
or even "One, two, three, four!"
You get the picture? Yes, we see.
I adore the spoken bits in Shangri-Las records. "Past, Present and Future" is all melodramatic tear-stained speech, but loads of the other records have great girly gossipy moments.
"When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in LOVE, L.U.V.!"
Recitation on the CD
"I think it's the first time we've had what you might call a recitation on the CD and it reminded me how much I like a bit of spoken word."
Didn't we have Jarvis Cocker doing "The Lion & Albert" in Feb last year? I've just been moved to the dangerous lunatic section now haven't I (see, I listen to podcasts too).
Spoken word bits in music ... Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Masacree" is mostly spoken. The early samples worked well throughout "My Life In the Bush of Ghosts." That's all that springs to mind at the moment.
Be quiet, big boys don't cry, big boys don't cry
brief but memorable from 10cc I'm not in Love. As whispered by secretary from Strawberry Studios - as it says somewhere nearby in cyberspace.
The spoken intro to "The Messiah Will Come Again"
on the eponymous Roy Buchanan album is bloody marvellous, and when he starts to play.... Hallelujah.
John Neville - The Unanswered Question
From that 'Charisma Disturbance' compilation
Whatever happened to Capability Brown?
Capability Brown
I have Charisma Disturbance too; that first side is a corker. I love the way that classical piece (I forget what it is - it's been while) segues into The Nice doing The Karelia Suite.
Capability Brown became the Mountain label's recording stars Krazy Kat. Ask me another. http://www.alexgitlin.com/npp/cb.htm
Oops I see I'm a bit late with this...
Lancelot or the band of moustaches?
http://www.alexgitlin.com/npp/cb.htm
OR
http://www.capability-brown.org.uk/
Ken Nordine again
When it comes to spoken word, Ken Nordine is the man. Danny Baker used to play his Colors album all the time, and it's a treat.
And linked to the Bonzos...
Grimms, the Liverpool Scene and the Scaffold, variously featuring Vic Stanshall, Neil Innes, Roger Mcgough, John Gorman, Andy Roberts, Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and more. Mix of songs, spoken word and poetry. Worth a try - you really wouldn't get anything like it today ! Try 'Love Story' on Scaffold live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall for a giggle.
Suzanne Vega
She talks in a sing-song way over music on every track.
Well it sure ain't that.....
....bolox on this months coverdisc! Nice backing track, tho'
Henry Rollins
I lurv his voice. I've got every one of his spoken word CDs I could lay my hands on.
The Bonzo's
Green - well. you know how GREEN can be?
Bit late onto this thread i know (story of my life etc)... but speaking of spoken word albums has anyone else encountered the wonderful 'Colors' album by the equally mad and wonderful Ken Nordine? It's truly out there..
Allegedly conceived as a means to sell paint (why do the strangest things have the most mundane origins) our Ken was asked to cook up some beat poetry style nonsense and in a thoroughly late 50's 'it's-abstract-man" type way and he duly delivered. So much so that a feat of such colour-themed absurdity has never been attempted since.
It's still a must to to amuse, amaze, terrify and generally drive out those guests foolish enough to outstay their welcome at any party i've ever hosted - and it works even better than Trout Mask Replica.
Check it out - it was virtually impossible to find until it was re-released on cd in 1995 on Asphodel. (Asphodel 0954)
Out-Ken'd
Oops - must take the time to red the whole blog before posting -seems Ken Nordine already discovered....
It is worth checking out though, daddio.