Monthly Archives: Jan 2024

John Lennon/Yoko Ono: Milk and Honey @ 40

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Milk and Honey – planned as the followup to Double Fantasy long before John Lennon’s death on 8 December 1980 – was finally released 40 years ago this weekend, on 27 January 1984.

I believe it was the second vinyl album owned by movingtheriver – the first was The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack.

Polydor did John and Yoko proud, with striking front/back photos and a gatefold sleeve complete with Ono’s liner notes, Lennon’s ‘Grow Old With Me’ lyrics and some Robert/Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry.

But Milk and Honey was somewhat of a commercial disappointment, reaching #3 in the UK and just #11 in the US. And it seems one of the least remembered Lennon-related albums these days. Why? Listening again after a few years this weekend was a pleasurable experience, with a few exceptions, and the breadth of musical styles (reggae, calypso, new-wave, piano balladry, rock’n’roll) is impressive.

Six John solo tracks recorded during and before the Double Fantasy sessions made it onto the album. They’re all pretty good, a few classic, mostly tougher than the previous material. John sounds on great form. His spoken-word moments and count-ins are amusing and he’s frequently heard ‘coaching’ the band (and studio staff) through the songs, Prince-style, with various instructions: ‘Boogie!’, ‘Hold it down’, ‘Groove!’, ‘All right, you can get out now’ etc.

The Lennon tracks also showcase a great band playing pretty much live in the studio. John plays lots of guitar – in that famous Jann Wenner interview, he said ‘I can make a guitar speak’, and you can hear it here. Drummer Andy Newmark lays off the hi-hat most of the time, letting the rhythm guitars fill in the top end.

Three UK singles were released from the album, with diminishing returns: ‘Nobody Told Me’ got to #6, ‘Borrowed Time’ (studio sessions reveal that John used an interesting reference source for the song) #32 and ‘I’m Stepping Out’ #88.

Yoko recorded her tracks during 1982 and 1983, mostly with a very good NYC rhythm section (Neil Jason on bass, Yogi Horton on drums), and they range from the intriguing to extremely corny. ‘Don’t Be Scared’ possibly influenced David Bowie, particularly the title track of Tonight, recorded three months after Milk and Honey was released:

Yoko also enlisted some ‘remix engineers’ who apparently added a lot of post-production effects to John’s vocals, the drums and guitars (she had fallen out with Double Fantasy producer Jack Douglas over unpaid royalties and refused to credit him on the album).

Revisiting Milk and Honey was certainly a bittersweet experience, but it’s an easy album to recommend, and it only makes you miss John all the more. The dunderheaded/ill-informed contemporary critical reactions are explored in this very good video:

Nik Kershaw: Wouldn’t It Be Good @ 40

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Bristol-born, Ipswich-raised Nik Kershaw had a spiffing 1984 – no other solo artist spent more time on the UK singles charts during the year.

‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’, released 40 years ago this weekend (on the same day as Echo & The Bunnymen’s ‘The Killing Moon’) and reaching #4, was his second single – ‘I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ flopped in September 1983 but got to #2 on its summer 1984 re-release.

‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’ was predominantly recorded at Sarm East studios on Osborn Street, Aldgate (don’t look for it – it’s not there any more). Peter Collins produced soon after helming Musical Youth’s ‘Pass The Dutchie’ (he later worked with Rush, Alice Cooper and Queensryche). The song’s original title was ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ – Collins demanded a better word than ‘nice’.

It’s a great single, the beginning of movingtheriver’s love affair with Kershaw’s music, and its ominous lyrics have the slight whiff of ‘In The Air Tonight’ about them, as well as a subtle social conscience. I distinctly remember watching him perform it on ‘Top Of The Pops’ for the first time – who was this tramp on telly, with the snood and fingerless gloves? My parents liked the song too, which was a bit disarming.

The song’s overdriven guitars were layered/overdubbed, Brian May-style (best heard on the 12” remix), and their major-seventh chords create some strange timbres. Its structure is seriously weird too – the second chorus comes right at the end, after a lengthy guitar/horn solo. The delayed gratification is clever and totally outside the norm.

The video was directed by Storm Thorgersen, mostly filmed in a large, disused building opposite Buckingham Palace, apart from a bit at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cambridge. An extremely odd cover version features on the ‘Pretty In Pink’ movie soundtrack. Nik fluffed the words at Live Aid but hardly anyone noticed.

Happy birthday to another classic single from 1984.

Big Country: ‘Wonderland’ Kicks Off One Of The Greatest Ever Pop Years

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Big Country kicked off 1984 – one of the greatest ever pop years – with their between-album, standalone A-side ‘Wonderland’. It reached #8, their second most successful single in the UK.

Also 40 years ago this week, Radio 1 DJ Mike Read ‘banned’ Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Relax’ and the Second British Invasion was sweeping the States, led by Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Culture Club, A Flock Of Seagulls and The Police (a remarkable Hot 100 chart of April 1984 featured 40% British acts).

Meanwhile, Big Music of a distinctly Celtic hue was sweeping the UK: The Waterboys, Simple Minds, U2, Echo & The Bunnymen and Big Country. They made ‘elemental’ music, as the cliché goes, with lots of space and lyrics about wars, work, glaciers, mountains, seas and skies.

You could make the case that Big Country were the best musicians of the lot (see the live clip below). And they had an extraordinary run of singles success between 1983 and 1986 – after their debut (‘Harvest Home’) missed the top 40, all the next ten reached the top 30. They also made some serious inroads into the US market.

Tommy Vance liked ‘Wonderland’, reviewing it in Kerrang! magazine thus: ‘Should be heard by anyone who likes fine music. I’m a real fan of Steve Lillywhite’s productions and he’s done a superb job here. The guitar sound is good and the drumming superb.’ Indeedy. Ver Country’s second album Steeltown (sans ‘Wonderland’) emerged in October 1984 and went to #1 in the UK. Cool times.

RIP the terrific Annie Nightingale.

Greg Osby: Season Of Renewal

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Of all the musical scenes that emerged during the 1980s, M-BASE – a Brooklyn-originated fusion of jazz and funk with many other influences thrown in – may be the least understood/remembered.

The term was co-authored by saxophonists Greg Osby and Steve Coleman. The M stands for ‘Macro’, BASE is an acronym for ‘Basic Array of Structured Extemporizations’.

The music’s other key practitioners were saxophonists Gary Thomas, vocalist Cassandra Wilson, keyboard player Geri Allen, guitarists Kevin Eubanks, David Gilmore and Kelvyn Bell, bassist Lonnie Plaxico and many more.

M-BASE was an attempt to draw attention away from ‘jazz’ as a catch-all term, and also showcase original material over standards and show tunes. But it certainly has its own sound once you hear a few key albums, totally different to ‘fusion’ or ‘jazz/funk’, relying on tightly structured drum patterns (often in odd-time signatures), funk bass, ‘modal’ keyboards, chattering rhythm guitars and Charlie Parker-influenced horn improvisations.

A key artefact was Osby’s arresting album Season Of Renewal, released 35 years ago on now-defunkt German-based label JMT (which also released many other key M-BASE recordings). Checking it out again now for the first time in a few years, it makes for fascinating, rewarding listening.

Themes are mainly outlined by the bass (Plaxico) and/or keyboards (Renee Rosnes and Edward Simon). Osby’s alto or soprano saxes generally only enter during solo sections. The guitarists (Eubanks and Kevin McNeal) are superb. The synths may bring to mind the 1980s music of Mark Isham. Drummer Paul Samuels produces solid grooves and seems to have been issued with a ‘no tom-toms’ decree by Osby.

‘Dialogue X’, featuring just synths and Osby, hints at the political animus always underlying the M-BASE movement. The closing ‘Spirit Hour’ is absolutely spellbinding, like a waking dream, its haunting melody expertly outlined by Cassandra Wilson.

Osby has gone on to a varied, impressive career, including a well-regarded period on Blue Note Records. But none of his JMT albums are currently on streaming platforms (except for a fairly good quality burn on YouTube, see below) – in fact M-BASE is poorly served there, though a so-so compilation has recently surfaced. Best to search for Osby’s 1980s music via CD marketplaces – a fruitful voyage for the uninitiated.