A Teenage Symphony to God (4/2/14)

Woke again from odd, edgy, work related dreams.

There had been a pile of boxes of stock that had been due to go to other stores but they had fallen over. I woke worrying that I hadn't sorted them out properly before finishing. I woke with no idea whether these boxes had ever fallen, ever existed or were simply a remnant of a previous dream. I've obviously (over) analysed this, both alone and on the phone with J. It feels like a fear of being 'bollocked' for having done something wrong despite the fact that I don't work for anybody. I think that I might be just a touch depressed. Possibly thinking about the same thing for 27 years and then having it suddenly removed will do that to you.

I'm fifty years old and have a tendency to over share.

(2021. Middle of lockdown. I'm having so many dreams about leaving do's for HMV. I mean, nightly. A different leaving do every night, always with different people, never entirely sure who the leaving do is for - possibly me, possibly somebody else.)

And I'm not allowing depression to happen. I refuse to sit here contemplating my navel and musing on my woes. I wanted this change, I wanted this opportunity. I have quite deliberately changed my life (at some point we'll discuss the universe and practical magic and the will to power and I'll pull together a full theory of everything and possibly create a new religion but that's for another day) for now let's just accept that I have deliberately changed my life.

What I'm doing now is what I do.

So let's have a cup of tea and talk about music. (I stole that line and changed it, a purely imaginary prize of some description to the first person that can tell me where I took it from)

For those that don't really 'dig' the music stuff (hiya J) - don't worry, I'm not going to do this every single day, just possibly lots of them. For those that do like me rambling about albums and songs and stuff, this; I know that I said that I intended to cover all my albums in alphabetical order but that was yesterday's idea and form is so constricting don't you think?

So V is for Velvet Crush.

Let's say this straight away; there is absolutely nothing wrong with echoing your influences. Some people take their influences, cover their songs and add something new to them (cf The Beatles and their love of Motown, R&B and girl groups transmuted into a sound unlike any other as a bedrock to build to genius) others just channel the stuff that they love and do it bloody well.

Pretty much everything about Velvet Crush's second album (and the only one that I own, have ever heard or ever really felt the need to hear to be honest) is/was referential in some way. The band's name summons up the material of early seventies flared trousers whilst also summoning up the spirit of that other Velvet named band (that Underground one? Lou and his mates?) and handily sitting near them in any decent record shop A-Z. Instant journalistic credibility and easy to find for young hipsters.

The album's title 'Teenage Symphonies To God' specifically echoes Brian Wilson's claim that his 'SMILE!' Album would be "a teenage symphony to God"; as discussed yesterday, classicists always know their history.

Velvet Crush's take on the idea of the 'Teenage Symphony' was informed by the sounds of the late sixties/early seventies, leaning heavily on country rock and power pop. It's the sound of The Byrds, Gram Parsons and (ex Byrd) Gene Clark's frankly fabulous solo work on 'Why Not Your Baby' (which I have genuinely just this very second, via the wonders of YouTube, realised is a Gene Clark cover) it's the feel of the Raspberries and the pop sensibilities that fill Badfinger's neglected work, 'Hold Me Up', 'My Blank Pages' (it's title a Dylan reference in itself) and the stunningly perfect 'Time Wraps Around You' bleed with the pulse of Big Star. That this second album was produced by Mitch Easter ensured that 'the Crush' shared DNA with early R.E.M., that the performance photo on the rear cover was filled with denim, corduroy, Fender Jaguars and Hofner basses showed exactly where the threesome were coming from.

The band clearly shared every influence that permeated the music press in the early nineties (the album is from '94) and that inspired their Creation labelmates Teenage Fanclub. Critical acclaim was obvious. And nobody bought the album.

Ah, 'twas ever thus. Blissful pop hailing from Rhode Island at the exact point that the record buying public was drawing up the battle lines between grunge' post Nirvana transformation to mainstream rock and the Damon Albarn fuelled BritPop retaliation? Never stood a chance.

Still, the world is only twenty years late on this. Plenty of time to catch up


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wu4D5MaS3Cs

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