Entertainment For Lively Minds
Where did all the weirdos go?
Time was, if you had 40-50 LPs or so, at least three or four of them would be by artists who could only be classified under "Unclassifiable". You might have some Ivor Cutler (a weedy-voiced Weegie with a wheezing harmonium - er, you probably had to be there), or the recently Baker-endorsed Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, or Stanley Unwin increasingrave your word poweribold, or a rake-thin Manc with an even rake-thinner tie reciting poems for punks, or Kevin Coyne (hi, Tony!) singing a capella at you in a uniquely eeee-ing-ing-ing-ing-undi-undi-undignified way.
And it wasn't just an "underground" thing, either. Mainstream pop was teeming with weirdos too, from clowns with bubble perms to keyboard players channelling Charlie Chaplin, with a thousand shades of stuh-range in between.
Where did you go to, my lovelies? Were the Unclassifiables all eventually pigeon-holed with their wings clipped? Have all the eccentrics been forced to follow brutally orthodox orbits? Or are they still out there, risking their entire careers on our willingness to get past our initial "What the..."?
- More from Archie Valparaiso.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Snap Crackle 'n' Bop indeed
They are all still out there, but not in the mainstream, unless you include the 'hilarious' (and I obviously use that word in completely the wrong sense) end-of-series compilations of fame chasing freaks and the genuinely mentally ill who fail to pass TV talent show auditions.
Now the genuine eccentrics are on Youtube, but so lost amidst a million other inane clips that the prospect of actually finding them is so remote as to be negligible. A recording contract or a spot on X Factor? Bah!
John Cooper Clarke is still touring and worth a punt. the last of a dying breed.
Don't forget Charisma's
John Betjeman albums
I only heard these recently
and I really love this http://open.spotify.com/track/6Ry1w26dLq37oKBTjWrw2z
Ivor Cutler
This is the Word blog, you know - no need to explain who the great Ivor Cutler is.
But yes, in a world where increasingly we're subject to the same cultural experiences, true eccentrics do seem less visible.
I was just trying to be...
down with da yoof demographic.
The problem with modern
weirdos is that they seem to arch to deliberate. Take Bonny Prince Billy for instance he has some good songs but the odd multiple names and mad man look is a bit too knowing for my liking.
Also we need to avoid knowing wackiness (it's not just the young Andy partridge is very guilty of this) there's nothing worse than trying too hard.
I think you have BPB wrong
I know people that have dealt with him in a professional capacity and swear that there is no act involved
may be you're right but it seems forced
we did see him walking around bare foot outside the forum in kentish town in the middle of winter which was genuinely odd.
Thanks for the reminder.
Just looked on spotify and found stuff by Wild Man Fischer and Moondog that I haven't heard. What an unexpected treat!
Lady Gaga
The "WTF" factor still very much in place.
Maybe not the most avant-garde of musical styles. But any time I see her I still raise an eyebrow in ponderance upon her character.
And did anyone else see her arrive at Glastonbury in a silver dalek? Again, WHAT?
Early 80s
It's why I'm particularly fond of that era. Lots of raised eyebrow moments, and some real characters. Even some of the teenie pin-ups were strange around the edges. Look back at Adam And the Ants, one of the biggest pop groups of the era and look at what they looked like, and the sound of those records.
Watching that Synth Britannia thingy the other week, what was clear was how modern mainstream pop doesn't have quite the same rough edges or quite singular vision in terms of style.
As somebody else says they're probably still around out there, but the companies aren't putting out the records and music is such a 'career' for some people now isn't it?
I blame (so-called) R&B
and stylists.
Everyone has the 'right' clothes, the 'right' haircuts and makes all the 'right' moves to all the 'right' beats.
How could a form of music that was once so vital and life-affirming morph into the MOBO-world of deadening conformity?
but pop music used to be all about
hair cuts and having the right trousers it's hardly a new phenomenon kids and ya average old school weirdo wasn't necessarily a mainstream pop figure.
I've got no chicken
But I've got five wooden chairs.
Past & present
50 minutes of Round The Horne
http://open.spotify.com/track/4xheFLIAZbaZ7F1t9qfTIr
Los Inhumanos - Nellie El Elefante
http://open.spotify.com/track/2pw2FfDVmMvI3lkYPky49B
Weird Al Yankovic - Ebay
http://open.spotify.com/track/5To7M9WlXKS0nr0gijZJFo
Bob Rivers - Aquaclaus
http://open.spotify.com/track/5y0odpY443CIssMf7oU62v
The Barron Knights - The Ballad Of Jarvis & Michael
http://open.spotify.com/track/5JyNpRswrqeJpdAvChCZkb
Oh come on
It's staring you in the face. JEDWARD!
If ever there was an art project in pop, that's it.
David
do let us know what the word is in "The Biz" Do you know someone who knows someone who has access to sources close to? Does Cowell really want the twins to win? He surely can't sell another boy/girl singer with a big voice can he?
I think there are clues...
in the video for "You Are Not Alone". Jedward get pretty short shrift in both the arrangement and the editing, while the one who gets the most close-ups and the "big note" out of the middle eight is... Danyl.
My prediction.
Syco knows that Jedward can win so he might as well get onside BUT he knows that they don't have a sustainable recording career so the grand plan is this...
1. They do one 'novelty album'
2. They get a Saturday morning kids TV show
3. They get a Saturday evening variety or quiz show
4. They become the new Ant & Dec
By 2015 they'll be in smart suits with calm hair just in time to allow the current Antandec to retire.
Mik Artistik - Brian Glover meets John Cooper Clarke
and Viv Stanshall.
I first saw Mik drawing portraits on brown paper bags in a pub in Leeds, before he got up on stage doing a version of Suspicous Minds with his own lyrics about being entangled in a bra - so 'caught in a trap' became 'caught in your straps'.
One of his songs is called Joyce Grenfell's Teeth Exploded In My Face, another is a version of Birddog 'Johnny is a birdbath/He's a door'.
Here's is his reworking of Walking in the Air
Speaking of Ivor Cutler
"the man is a sandwich" - seems perfectly logical to me. But then as my kids tell me when I sing or recite this genius stuff "you're weird Dad".
What about
Daniel Johnson? I'm sure there's others, but I can't think of anybody off the top of my head.
Dennis Greenidge
I've got a Reprise Records Sampler 2 lp
from 1970 and side four is pretty much "Hi and welcome to the Reprise weirdo showcase!" and has cuts from the Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Wildman Fischer, Ed Sanders and Pearls Before Swine.
We can be weirdos
Duffo - He was an Australian singer whose single "Give Me Back Me Brain" was performed on Russell Harty. He dressed a la Scary Monsters Bowie. To help us along with this concept that his brain had been removed, the vocals had a slurred delivery. His band all wore pig masks. I had to have it.
Nash the Slash - He dressed entirely in bandages, apart from a hat and a pair of sunglasses. I don't remember any of his songs.
Jesse Rae - You never saw his face as it was covered by a metal helmet of some sort. Never stepped over the border into England on principle. Bekilted claymore swinger. Even more Scottish than Runrig.
Jesse Rae was
a staple of The Tube for a while
The whole project *might* have had something to do with one Brian Arthur Robertson. Allegedly.
I may be misjudging the legal climate
but if you're suggesting that BA Robertson was the 'brains' behind the singles released in the late 80s by Jesse Rae, I doubt you'll be hearing from m'learned friends anytime soon. I could be wrong - perhaps they've been waiting all these years for a chink in your hitherto impenetrable armour...
Not that I'm suggesting that you're suggesting that, of course.
Biscuithead & The Biscuit Badgers
I had never heard an 'apporth of this band until 20 minutes ago. I found them whilst viewing the Hebden Bridge Trades Club website. Described as "Moustached-powered Tuba Cabaret" and perfick for this Word weirdo section methinks. http://biscuithead.co.uk/