4. Alexander ‘Skip’ SpenceOar
The fact that this was even released is kind of crazy because Skip Spence said these were demos and you can hear a bit of that. He plays everything on it and it was recorded in a week. I think the story is that he rode in on a motorcycle from Bellevue Hospital after being in there with serious mental health issues and then spent a week in the studio on his own and then Columbia decided to release it, which is incredible.
But if you think of those Daniel Johnston cassettes, this has a similar feel to that. They’re quite fragmentary and some of the songs just fall apart. It starts with ‘Little Hands’, which is just incredible with a beautiful melody and it’s a great little pop song.
But it’s really kind of elastic, this album. It has a Jimi Hendrix grooviness to it, too. You can stretch it all over the place. And then it’s got these brilliant lyrics and I don’t know where they’re coming from at all, really. Experimentation with psychedelic drugs has definitely played its part in the formulation of the lyrical content on this album. I was thinking of the track ‘Broken Heart’, which is a favourite of mine, actually; it’s a slow sort of country groove and there’s this line that goes, “Like a thirsty cowboy/In a lake his tongue does rest/Jumps in and he cannot swim/And drowns himself to death” – the imagery in that song! I’m just thinking about this cowboy in the desert but this desert is like a Salvador Dali desert and everything is sorta melting; that’s what the song puts me in mind of. The music on this album is kinda melting, you know?
The melodies are so infectious and catchy. I love this album and I think it’s a brilliant, brilliant record. It’s one that I don’t have an original copy of and it’s one that I keep looking at and it’s getting tastier and tastier! I remember Gerry back in the day picking one up at a record fair and I’d love to have one too. I’ll have to keep looking but I’m gonna have to sell one of my kidneys to buy it, I think!
