Search & Destroy: Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

I think I sounded a bit more critical than I meant to. Both albums are definitely worth listening to. I'd only ever heard the singles.

Timeless Flight is supposedly Harley’s favorite of his records. I love it too. I was amazed long ago to move into a shared roommate situation with a guy I didn’t know, and he had a cassette with that on one side and Dark Side of the Moon on the other. Maybe the Alan Parsons connection? Although Harley self produced Timeless Flight.

The overblown orchestration on "Death Trip" is probably my favorite part of that whole album!

it hit some kind of middle ground between Countdown to Ecstasy and Hunky Dory that just hits me right.

Whoa, I should listen to Timeless Flight.

I don’t know if I hear Steely Dan in it, but it’s lower key and less weird than the preceding records.

“Death Trip” is so amazing, that folky (for lack of a better term) middle section reminds me of The Incredible String Band. And it made me look up ipomoea.

We'll grow sweet Ipomoea to make us feel much freer
Then take a pinch of Schemeland and turn it into Dreamland

Funny you should say that but I kept thinking of Malcolm Le Maistre's songs for the Incredible String Band when I was listening to these albums.

Harley came from a busking and folkie background, so it’s not surprising that ISB is within that Venn diagram.

Harley came from a busking and folkie background, so it’s not surprising that ISB is within that Venn diagram.

He said, twice

Played this clip (not quite the original, I don't think, but close enough, and it's got lyrics) for a 2/3 class today. The fact that he died was interesting to them, so they listened intently. Right place at the right time: they were saved from a life of never having heard this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU6D6ef0prw

I never thought this was a great idea even when I was at the height of my Harley fandom.

What was a good idea?

Or rather not a great idea

Covering “Here Comes The Sun.”

Oh, yeah. Was that video “Here Comes the Sun”? Doesn’t look like it

I thought you might mean ISB center of “Death Trip”

Gah, I’m a dork. Clemenza’s vid was “Make Me Smile.” Which I do like a lot.

Heh. It happens

Listening to The Human Menagerie deluxe again now. It’s on the verge of sounding too thin and twee for me and yet, and yet I really dig it for some reason.

Maybe you were looking at the video for “Here Comes the Sun” that I posted at the end of last year, which prompted the following response from one ILX0r:

I'm sure it made perfect sense in the scorching 76 summer heat, cute Moog warbles like scorching pavements, a nostalgic Beatles compilation and some huge Wings songs in the charts.

i love make me smile and it always makes me think that robyn hitchcock must have been a big fan.

Onto The Psychomodo. "Ritz" seems to quote the stereotypical Morricone Spaghetti Western hook.

This conversation prompted me to pull out Stripped to the Bare Bones. If you find those early records too twee, this is a good antidote. The songs hold up, and it really brings out the Dylanisms. I would have given anything to have experienced one of these live shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_to_the_Bare_Bones

Looks great, thanks. Hard to access a streaming copy easily though.

The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo are big favourites of mine, the latter in particular an easy all-time favourite. Spent the last few days playing his 70s stuff endlessly. Even though I still think the dissolution of the original band was a really big loss - as SH&CR his excels at individual songs on somewhat patchy albums, rather than excellent albums where my favourites always change.

Me and a friend were actually talking about all the unexpected future connections you can draw. Vampire Weekend in "Singular Band" and "Judy Teen", say, with the nimble off-centre rhythms, hearty indie-pop melodies and depth of space. Steel drums (and lyrics) aside I do hear later day Beautiful South in "Muriel the Actor" (that's not meant to put anyone off!) (The first time I heard the 'oh I'm a reminder' part in LCD Soundsystem's "Tonite" it made me think of the message flashing in the sky bit in "Sling It!", which is so trivial even by this message's standards I've had to stick it in parentheses). Plus there's the more typical Magazine, Adam and the Ants etc. comparisons to be made.

Good post!

Thanks! I also think of Japan's "Nightporter" as sharing some of its impressionistic DNA with "Sebastian".

have always heard a bit of Harley's snarled "destroyed" (in fantastic OTT Dylan mode) in Psychodromo in Rotten's "destroy" at the end of Anarchy