Steelye Span: All Around My Hat

It’s Traditional Tuesdays, and since I’ve been featuring a number of Irish tunes, I thought I would sail across the Irish Sea and back two centuries for a bit of English folk from the 19th century. Like many folk tunes, there are several variations that exist. Steelye Span’s version from 1975, however, is the only one to chart – peaking at #5 on the British pop charts. It was the band’s only gold single.

The song tells of the absence of a true love with the protagonist vowing to morn this loss by wearing a green willow in her hatband for twelve months and a day – a traditional period of mourning. In the Steelye Span version, the band actually interpolates another traditional song, “Farewell He,” into the lyrics of “All Around My Hat” to create a dialogue between the characters.

Steelye Span was formed by bassist Ashley “Tyger” Hutchings when he felt that Fairport Convention was moving away from traditional to more original music. Hutchings last LP with Fairport was their greatest seller, “Liege and Leif.” By the time that Steelye Span recorded “All Around My Hat,” Hutchings had long moved onto other projects. Although Hutchings organized the band, the best known member has been its female vocalist, Maddy Prior.

Prior began her singing career with Tim Hart in 1966 and both became founding members of Steeleye Span in 1969. Maddy stayed with Steeleye Span until 1996 and later rejoined the group in 2002. Besides the 25 albums released with Steeleye Span, Maddy has appeared on 34 additional albums both as a solo artist and as part of various ensembles. In 2001, Prior was awarded the Member of the British Empire medal by Queen Elizabeth II for her contribution to folk music.

My personal collection includes three Steeleye Span albums, 1971's "Please to See the King," 1977's "Storm Force Ten," and the 1977 compilation, "The Steeleye Span Story: Original Masters." "All Around My Hat" can be found on this compilation as well as on the 1975 album of the same name. As an aside, Maddy Prior also rerecorded “All Around My Hat” as a special guest on Status Quo’s 1996 cover of the song.

By the way, the name Steeleye Span has no connection to Steely Dan, as I am frequently asked by other Americans who are unfamiliar with this British folk-rock act. Steelye Span predates Steely Dan by a few years and their name is based on a mythical character in the song "Horkstow Grange" named John Span, whose nickname was "Steeleye."

Steely Dan's name comes from a mythical character of another sort. There is no connection between the two; however, I have worked up an instrumental on mandolin and bouzouki that is something of Steeleye Span meets Steely Dan. The tune starts off with a reel that I composed, but have yet to title, that is joined in a medley with "Reelin' in the Years." I use the mando and zook to mimic the two guitar parts on the Steely Dan classic. One of these days, I'll post a recorded version of it.

Pixie Lott: Use Somebody

With the difficulty of climbing out from under the covers on Mondays, my cover song feature today is Pixie Lott’s acoustic version of the Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.” While she is not the only artist that has covered this tune, her version seems to have a little more umph than Paramore’s acoustic version. I like their version to a point. Paramore’s treatment of the "oh-oh-oh’s" in the intro and elsewhere, however, seems to fall flat; whereas, Lott’s treatment of the same is more credible.



This is one of those cover tunes that came out on the heels of a massive hit. Earlier this year, the Kings of Leon topped the US charts and peaked at number 2 in the UK with “Use Somebody.” In the UK, “Use Somebody” appeared as the B side to Pixie Lott’s #1 single, “Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)” – eventually the B side was flipped and her cover of the Kings of Leon hit peaked at 52 on the UK charts. I’m still wondering how one flips a CD single, but the language used for vinyl 45s of a bygone era is still used.

Here’s the Kings of Leon’s original.

A WORD ON COVERS

In the world of popular music, we don’t often encounter cover versions that chart at the same time or right after the original hit peaks. This was fairly common, however, in the 1950s and early 1960s when you often had competing versions of the same song – just imagine Pat Boone singing Little Richard’s “Tutti Fruiti” and you get my point.

When I was working in radio in the 1980s, there were several examples of when competing versions of a song were released. The one that I remember specifically was the song “Der Kommissar,” which was originally recorded and released by Falco. To my knowledge, Falco’s original version of the song either had never been released in the US when it was issued in 1981; or if it was, this first release never charted within the top 40.

In 1983, Atlantic Records released Laura Branigan’s song which utilized the same tune, but she added new lyrics under the title of “Deep in the Dark.” This was the follow-up single to her smash “Gloria”; however, it did not have the strength to compete with After the Fire’s version of "Der Kommissar" released by Epic (CBS). Atlantic wisely pulled the “Deep in the Dark” single from release and put their efforts on Branigan’s next single "Solitaire," which did quite well.

ATF’s version was the US hit and peaked at number 5. During the time ATF was climbing the charts, A&M reissued Falco’s original version and it got airplay in a number of markets, but was too late to do any damage to ATF’s hit – Falco peaked at 72.

During 1983, I was changing jobs from music director/midday announcer at WCIR-FM in Beckley, WV to morning drive announcer/music consultant at WOAY-FM in Oak Hill, WV. At both WCIR-FM and WOAY-FM, we played the ATF and the Falco versions. ATF was in heavy rotation, while Falco's "Der Kommissar" was played perhaps once or twice a day to add a little variety to the mix. Neither station reported the Falco airplay as it was insignificant.

At CIR, we put Laura Branigan's "Deep in the Dark" in what we termed as an album cut rotation, which in essence was played perhaps once an evening. The song generated no interest and never charted for us and hence we never reported it to Radio & Records, Cashbox or Billboard. At WOAY-FM, which was transitioning from an AOR (album oriented rock) format to CHR (contemporary hit radio i.e., Top 40), we never played “Deep in the Dark.” Timing and promotion probably decided which version become the US hit record. Food for Thought.

Additionally, the local band I was in at the time, Audio Game, did this song and featured drummer Meredith Trent on vocals and it became one of our more popular numbers. The band often beat other local bands to the punch on learning new songs, as I had immediate access to new music before they charted and supplied the band with recordings. We often were the most contemporary local band in Southern West Virginia for this reason.

Brandon Heath: Red Sky

It is Spiritual Sunday and with every week, I feature a song that has a deeper message. Friday night, I had the opportunity to see Brandon Heath, Leeland, and Francesca Battistelli in concert at the Church of God Family Worship Center in Beckley, WV. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening - every seat was excellent, and the sound and the band were exceptional. If you have the opportunity to see the Follow You Tour, do it.

One of the songs Brandon Heath performed was "Red Sky." He prefaced the song with old nautical saying, "Red skies at night sailor's delight; red skies in morning - sailors take warning." The idea of this song is that we are to desire the Lord to cover us in the red skies at night because we know that the morning will be much better. While it is not the first tune referencing "red skies" (see Thrice & The Fixx for example), it does provide a message of hope when the skies seem menacing.

He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away. Matthew 16:2-4 NIV

I hope you enjoy this song and its message as much as I have.

The Pat Metheny Group: Have You Heard

I am getting a late start today as I wanted to preface this particular post with the previous two posts that reference Harry Abraham. Pat Metheny was one of the artists that I initially discovered by listening to Harry’s show on WHAM in the mid 1970s. If you don’t know the name Pat Metheny, I am sure you have heard his music as it is often featured on the Weather Channel during the local forecasts.

Originally with Gary Burton’s band, Pat branched out on his own, and his second ECM LP was my first – it was titled “Watercolors.” There is something about the guitar sound of Metheny that makes it different – I can’t explain it, but it is a unique tone. With that said, I had difficulty finding a live piece on You Tube that captured the classic Metheny sound.

Although today’s feature tune was from the 1989 release of "Letter from Home," is akin to sound of the band in its earlier phases. There is one notable addition and this is the vocal of Pedro Aznar that doubles the guitar lines. Aznar uses his voice as an instrument and it works well here in the context of this song.



Here's another live version of the same song.



With many of the later recordings, Metheny used a guitar synthesizer and keyboardist Lyle Mays had moved from his primary use of the piano to other keyboard instruments. Not that this evolution in their music was bad, the sound that first attracted me to Metheny’s music is often absent - replaced by something different, but equally as good. Hopefully, this listen of the Pat Metheny Group will cause you to discover more than the 45 second bumpers found on the Weather Channel.

Here's an interview with Pat on the Today Show along with a performance of "Letter from Home."

Return to Forever: Crystal Silence

This is an extra post to make up for some of the songs that I featured via Facebook before starting this blog. Here is a little lite jazz from Chick Corea and Joe Farrell of Return to Forever. I heard this first on Harry Abraham's show "The Best of All Possible Worlds" in the mid 1970s.

Chick Corea’s Fender Rhodes electric piano and Joe Farrell’s soprano sax performances on this number were simply beautiful. Not knowing that Harry Abraham was playing an imported recording, I vainly searched for nearly a year for this song. My search produced only another version of this same song recorded by Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton. While it was excellent rendition of the same song, the soprano saxophone was missing. Finally, Return to Forever’s debut album from 1972 was released in the US in 1975, and I was able to add this recording my growing jazz collection.

Both this and the Corea/Burton albums were on the same label - ECM Records out of Germany.  These and other ECM recordings caused me to become a fan of Manfred Eicher's record label. I began to purchase every old and current ECM release I could find (and afford) - even if I had never heard it.  Eicher's motto was "the worlds most beautiful music" and he was true to his word, I was only disappointed by only a couple of the label's very early avant-garde releases.

In addition, Joe Farrell's "Crystal Silence" performance was the first time I had ever heard a soprano saxophone (remember this was 20 years before Kenny G.).  Another ECM artist, Norwegian Jan Garbarek also played soprano sax on his recordings and both artists whet my appetite for more - even to the point of searching for one to purchase.

In 1984, I eventually found a Buescher Bb soprano sax at Yadco Music when they were located on Fifth Avenue in East McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Dan Yadesky, the store's owner, gave me a great discount as I had been his paper boy in the early 1970s.  At the time, Dan thought it was a 1947 model; however, upon checking the serial number today - this sax was actually made in 1925.  While I never mastered it, I found it easier to play than my tenor and it has better intonation due to it being a much better instrument.  I get it out of the case every so often and have fun playing it from time to time.

My Buescher soprano saxophone

Thanks to Harry Abraham who first started this chain of events by introducing me to this song that introduced me to the ECM record label and the soprano saxophone.

Harry Abraham: The Best of All Possible Worlds

Recently on my Facebook page, I mentioned a disc jockey out of Rochester, NY that had a profound influence over my interest in jazz. His name was Harry Abraham and he worked the graveyard shift (Midnight to 5 am) on WHAM, a clear channel powerhouse on 1180 AM. The show was called “The Best of All Possible Worlds,” and although I haven’t heard his voice in 31 years, I still remember his friendly, dulcet tones.

ROUND MIDNIGHT

In the mid to late 70s, I was doing a quite a bit of overnight driving between Eastern Kentucky where I was attending college to my hometown in Western Pennsylvania. It was normally a six hour trip and became longer when the energy crisis forced the imposition of the 55 mph speed limit in the US.

Typically, I travelled Ohio State Route 7 along the Ohio River for a portion of this journey. One of the pleasantries of this route was the signal of WHAM that boomed down the Ohio River valley. During these trips, WHAM’s signal was clearer than other 50 KW stations that I frequented during that era such as Chicago's WLS & WCFL, New York's WABC, Ft. Wayne's WOWO, Pittsburgh's KDKA, Windsor/Detroit's CKLW, and Boston's WBZ.

THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME

Abraham was a mastermind at finding the best jazz – usually, he played recently issued progressive jazz and fusion selections interspersed with an occasional recording from the previous decade. Harry Abraham introduced me to the likes of Chick Corea, Jean Luc Ponty, George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Weather Report, Jan Hammer, Jimmy Smith, Gary Burton, Mose Allison, Brian Auger, Theolonius Monk, Pat Matheny, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, George Duke, and countless others.

Prior to this period, I had never listened to jazz.   I really liked the music I heard on “The Best of All Possible Worlds” and I frequently pulled off the highway and jotted down notes from Harry’s playlist. Back on campus, I began hosting a weekly hour long jazz show on WKCC. Much of the music I played from 1975 to 1978 was inspired by what I heard on these late night jaunts. Not being as creative as Harry, I named my show the “Surrealistic Nocturnal Experiment.” Oh well, I was young then.

WHAT IS THERE TO SAY?

Not only was Harry's musical choice inspiring, he also provided a wealth of information. His voice echoed beyond the confines of midnight to five and the phenomenon of a medium wave signal bouncing off the ionosphere. Dissatisfied with the direction of Downbeat, Harry started a competing publication in 1973 named Different Drummer and served as its editor. His deep convictions concerning the quality of jazz that was being produced resulted in these opinions being verbalized. As he was secured to provide numerous album liner notes, he was brutally honest with at least one release.

On Ronnie Foster's "Sweet Revival," Abraham admits, "Let me begin by saying that this is not the greatest jazz album you've ever heard." He additionally assessed the recording by opining that it was "a commercial album that could have just as easily been titled 'Ronnie Foster Plays the Top 40 hits of the Seventies With Horns, Strings and Voices.'"

Reacting to the ever present commercialization of the jazz industry, he kept the musical integrity of his show. Not even a decade old friendship could sway him otherwise. When Maynard Ferguson visited WHAM's studios on May 12, 1977, he was hoping that his old friend would play some tunes from the soundtrack to "Rocky."

When Harry refused, Ferguson began to hurl insults: "You've got terrible taste most of the time, Harry . . . In fact, you're one of the worst disc jockeys I've ever met in my life." Ferguson finished his tirade by calling Harry something obscene to which he followed by exiting the studio — all captured live. After several moments of dead air, Harry composed himself and replied, "Well, I guess I've been told."

Attempting to clear his reputation, Abraham filed a defamation of character lawsuit against Ferguson that was eventually thrown out of court. While there is an urban legend that the episode cost Harry his job at WHAM, his eventual dismissal had nothing to do with his conduct and convictions and everything to do with ratings and revenues.

SONNY SIDE UP

During my final undergrad year at Kentucky Christian, I was also worked the breakfast shift at McDonalds in South Point, Ohio. Being that the store was located an hour away, I needed to rise by 4 am to get ready for work. At the time, I awakened every morning to the final hour of Harry’s show as I readied myself for hawking Egg McMuffins, pancakes, and hash browns.

I awoke one morning in 1978 to the strains of an uncharacteristic country record. To my dismay, I learned that WHAM had switched formats. Gone was the jazz in the middle of the night that I had grown to love. While Waylon Jennings and Freddy Fender could be heard on numerous stations in the Tri-State area where I lived — jazz was not an option. WHAM’s programming alteration became “The Worst of All Possible Worlds.” As part of the fallout, Harry Abraham was out of work – a frequent occurrence in the broadcasting industry that accompanies format changes. Unfortunately, it proved to be Harry’s last radio gig.

SOMETHIN’ ELSE

Abraham tried a variety of careers, but none were successful. He was the general manager the defunct Rochester Lancers soccer franchise, sold insurance, worked as a clerk in a news store, sold advertising specialties to broadcast stations, and co-owned a submarine sandwich shop. Although his friends and family indicated there was no appearance of financial problems, Harry apparently believed there was reason to worry. He began to contemplate solutions for his financial condition. A conversation about a recent drug store robbery in Rochester sparked Abraham with the possibility of robbing a bank.

IDLE MOMENTS

On October 12, 1982, he drove to Syracuse where he could not be easily identified and entered the first bank he saw – the main branch of the Syracuse Savings Bank. Handing a note demanding money to a teller, Abraham indicated that he was accompanied by a friend armed with grenades. As he exited the bank with $2,400, the teller followed and recorded Abraham’s license plate number and vehicle description.

Within an hour, New York State Troopers arrested Abraham at a New York Thruway service area. He had no accomplice and no weapon, but was apprehended with the money from the robbery. During the time between his arrest and sentencing, his wife Lynne began divorce proceedings and ended their marriage. Although he made some interesting comments upon his arrest, he never denied the fact that he was guilty. Due to a plea bargain arrangement, his sentence was commuted from 15 years to four and one-half years to be served at the Auburn (NY) Correctional Facility.

SPIRITUAL UNITY

Prison provided Abraham the opportunity to reflect upon his life and he turned to spiritual matters. He embraced Judaism, the religion of his forebears. Apparently he was not reared in a religious environment, as he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on September 28, 1984 at the age of 39 – three times the age when this rite of passage into manhood normally occurs.

TIME OUT

Following the payment of his debt to society, Harry settled in Philadelphia where he worked in a variety of professions and eventually honed his skill as a professional photographer. His talent is evident and it appears that he finally landed on a profession where he could explore his creative voice as much as he did at WHAM.

POINT OF DEPARTURE

Born on March 12, 1945, Harold Norman Abraham breathed his last on May 7, 2009. He was survived by a fiancé and two children. According to his wishes, his remains were cremated. Hopefully, Harry will be remembered for more than that one unfortunate, desperate act in Syracuse. In the jazz universe, Harry Abraham’s name should be among the brightest of stars. Long live the influence of Harry Abraham; “we have entered the era of silent radio.”

“Old broadcasters never die, they’re just potted down,” Jim Owston, August 1983.

Sam Tsui & Kurt Schneider: Don't Stop Believing

It is another Fun Friday and as usual another interesting tune – that, well, it just happens to make listening to music more enjoyable.  Today’s feature won’t make you laugh, but it is guaranteed to make you smile.  Our feature is the “You Tube Singing Sensation,” Sam Tsui (pronounced Shoo-ee) doing the Journey classic from 1981, “Don’t Stop Believing.”

Actually this is a cover of a cover. It follows the arrangement of the song as done for the Fox TV series, Glee.  So Sam, he is, covers the cast of Glee’s cover of Journey’s top 10 hit.  Take 2 from column A and add 5 from column B for the special today – as five Sams harmonize on this tune – sort of a Sams’ Club of his own.



None of this could be possible without Sam’s childhood friend, Kurt Schneider. Sam and Kurt have been honing there musical and production talents while attending one of the more prestigious universities in the US, Yale.   Sam sings, acts, and writes music; Kurt writes music and scripts, edits and produces video, and has the ability to play numerous instruments. Together they make a great musical combination and it is real synergy with these two.

The five Sams on this tune really look and sound as though they are together singing at the same time.  Something this complicated could only be produced in the digital age as an analog version would definitely degrade with as many generations needing to accomplish this amazing feat.  By the way, all of the instrumentation is by Kurt Schneider.  Both are part of the team that runs Noodle House Studios.

Another great example of their talent features no less than six Sams and one Kurt doing their arrangement of a Michael Jackson medley.



I would have expected these two to be fine arts or at the very least media majors, but their chosen majors have no direct connection to their performance skills.  Kurt is majoring in math while Sam is studying classical Greek.  I would be surprised if these two young men don’t have successful careers at some level in the entertainment industry. They have the drive, originality, and talent to make this happen.

For more about this dynamic duo, see last week’s interview from the Bonnie Hunt Show (aired September 24, 2009).