Jake Holmes - A Letter to Katherine December

Saturday Night - Jack Holmes (1968)

An insightful social commentary on modern day mating rituals or misguided angry jealousy directed at his ex-wife (Katherine)... probably both... whatever it is, it's a very 60s lyrically downbeat yet musically upbeat tune with strange orchestrations and wayward six string explorations. 

When somebody tells you there's a record you should check out "It's a bit like Love's Forever Changes by a dude who used to be in a band with Tim Rose" you can only ever end up disappointed. However after leaving the bootleg cd of A Letter To Katherine December languishing in my cobwebby collection for ages (twenty years) I've had a slight change of heart after coming across Holmes recently on a website.

For those that don't know Jake Holmes was an acid-folk singer/songwriter with psychedelic jazz undercurrents whose first LP The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes (1967) had a little song on it by the name of Dazed And Confused which he wrote. Later in the 70s he would lend his songwriting talents to The Four Seasons, Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and eventually the advertising world. 

Anyway we're talking here about the second Jake Holmes LP A Letter To Katherine (1968) which has surprisingly never had an official reissue since its original release date in 1968. The master tapes have never been found although a fairly sub-standard version did turn up on spotify a few years back. Several tunes have a lounge-y cabaret/show tunes influence while others are almost proto-new-wave, perhaps making Katherine not as cohesive as many would like. Whilst not exactly a masterpiece it definitely has its moments... there's really only one track, the irritating High School Hero, preventing this record from minor classic status. The Beatles always had annoying tunes on their great albums so perhaps I'm being too harsh. 

Late Sleeping Day - Jake Holmes (1968)

A tune of quiet turmoil that unfolds intensely yet cautiously featuring subtle understated acidic spike-y jazz guitar tones and strings. Nice.  

Chase Your Eyes - Jake Holmes (1968)

Chase Your Eyes is pretty impeccable 60s stuff, acid-folk gold. It's one of the tunes on the LP that is actually comparable in quality and aesthetic vision to Love. This vocal performance is quite a journey with its restrained melodic twists and turns. Add in an ace string arrangement and voilà...

Moving Day - Jake Holmes (1968)

Having been in the situation depicted in this song's scenario several times in my life, I find this heartbreaking. I get the feeling she left him and not the other way around. It's heartbreaking no matter who's doing the leaving though... er fabulous arrangement so quite the artistic achievement here.

 

Leaves Never Break - Jake Holmes (1968)

The noisy heavy-psych freakout track on the LP. This tune leaves a lot of people wondering what could have been if he'd done a whole side in this extreme chaotic acid-rock style or indeed an entire LP.

Sleeping Woman - Jake Holmes (1968)

Dreamy Rickenbacker twirls, that mesmerizing bass, luscious strings fused with soaring vocals all intertwine to make this THE incandescent jewel of this lost treasure. Surely one of the great lost moments in 60s music, am I wrong?

Houston Street - Jake Holmes (1968)

A restrained dark and intense whispered vocal with sparse ghostly guitar picking... kinda almost proto-Slint innit.

Fingerbobs

[1972]

S Reynolds points out Scampi Theme is also a banger which I totally agree. However I cannot abide Gulliver's (The Seagull) Theme which goes into very irritating almost Tiny Tim territory. The opening Fingerbobs Theme which incorporates Joffy's own little theme tune is also excellent as is the tortoise's tune aka Flash's Theme.

What's the story with Joffy I wonder?

A Canadian paper finger puppet master abroad gets his own show on the BBC. 

A quick glance on the interwebs reveals Joffy aka actor Rick Jones was a Play School presenter in Britain during the 60s and 70s who was involved in a drugs scandal which got him sacked from the BBC.

Rick Jones - Saskatchewan Sunrise (1971)
He had a #26 Canadian hit with this sorta baroque-country Gordon Lightfoot-esque tune. Pretty good.

 

Rick Jones later had a band called Meal Ticket. They did this tune for the The Flipside Of Dominick Hide which was an episode of Play For Today in 1980.

The Flipside Of Domonick Hide (1980)

I don't recall but surely Mark Fisher wrote about this show... I mean it's described as a tale about "genetic time slippage" ffs... actually this predated Back To The Future and fulfils some of the scenarios entertained therein ie. there is some kind of sex with a great-great-grandmother, oh dear this does sound demented, whereby Dominick spawns his own great-grandfather or something... 

Fingermouse Theme

"I am the mouse called fingermouse

the mouse with guts and verve

I get past cats so easily

with my famous body-swerve"

I was watching an episode of Fingerbobs and this great folk-y Fingermouse theme tune came on. Then I thought how was this missed in the 00s when all those British kids telly things became all the rage and they reissued the soundtracks and dvds of the programs etc.  

 

Fingermouse Theme - Michael Jesset, Michael Cole and Rick Jones (1972)

Turns out Trunk did a cd reissue in 2011 which I can now pay $57 for on discogs. 

Anyway, top tune.  

In Reverse / Some Say - Stray

In Reverse / Some Say - Stray [1970]

The undeniable heavy psych-prog stylings of Stray from their eponymous debut record.

So much music was dismissed, written out or never written in rock history narratives that there are some bands you just never heard about back in the day. I mean people know their Groundhogs, Pink Fairies, Buffalo and even Sweet Leaf these days but Stray... They were probably mentioned in Rock & The Pop Narcotic (1990) but it wasn't until the early 00s when reissue specialists Castle Music released that space rock compilation then the Stray 70s anthology that many of us became aware of these lost doyens of progressive hard rock.  

All In Your Mind - Stray [1970]
This was the tune on the 2001: A Space Rock Odyssey 2cd compilation, it's also the opening track to Stray's self-titled 1970 debut. 

Drivin' hard riffin' gloriousness. This still has remnants of their mod roots whilst heading into the stoner proto-metal 70s. Some severe wah-wah action here. The SOUND of these guitars baby!

'O' Level - We Love Malcolm

[1978]

'O' Level were notable for being name checked in Part-Time Punks (1978) by The Television Personalities. It's a bit cheeky though as Ed Ball was in both groups. This is DIY punk and no it ain't no hard-rock/sub-metal. More like proto-indie skeletal jangle-y gear of the faux ineptitude variety yet sorta charming, cheerful and tuneful, before that whole vibe got tiresome in the 80s. 

Also how amazing is it that a manager of a band was able to insinuate himself into being a celebrity as famous as his clients The Sex Pistols, then get a bloody song written about him. 

Information - Inside Your Mind

[1985]

On the synth-y new wave tip in a proto hypnagogic/synth-wave style that you'd imagine the likes of Ariel Pink, John Maus, Geneva Jacuzzi etc. being influenced by. The world just wasn't ready for this kind of outside the lines deranged pop music with its amorphous mega melodies and overall synth seepage.  

The And - Marshmallow In A Keyhole

[1984]

Bringing you all the hits and misses from the 80s. Weird mixture of in-between scenes things here: Synth-y new wave, almost indie rock and throwback 70s radio anthem... hits you in your emotional bones, I mean it coulda been on a teen flick soundtrack couldn't it... just a catchy, crafty and copacetic tune. When that keyboard hits at 1:47 it gets pretty ecstatic. Surely this is Canadian... or Mid-Western. 

The best anthem from the 80s you never heard. 

New Johnny 5 - The Reasoning

[1985]

This kinda post-punk new wave sound was old by 1986 but this tune is soo fucking good it makes you think well hang on a minute this is undeniable who cares! A good tune is a good tune. 

This is incredibly endearing and bittersweet regional new wave from New London CT. It's a lost classic. New Johnny 5 are forever out of time and place even in the internet age. They're not on spotify and their 1986 LP Alternative Tactics has only eight ratings on Rate Your Music.

(non) hits and non (memories)

The Gathering - Falling Crimson

[1988]

A bit of late goth from South Africa no less. The Gathering (not to be confused with the Dutch band) did just one single and this was the b-side. This tune is a lark innit, what a killer dark bass line, ace drummage and great atmospheric infernal guitar sound. 

Konrad - Evil

[1982]

If you didn't discover Konrad's delightful cult album Evil on music sharing blogs in the 00s here's your chance now. Don't let the cover fool you this ain't no satanic metal, it's actually an anti-evil synth-songwriter record. The sort of thing you might think John Maus was influenced by. While Evil is somewhat of its time it's also absolutely outside of time as well. 

Along with the myriad of synth action you get some fx damaged vocals, acoustic guitars, more synths, jazzy pop, psych rock reimagined through an electro pop viewfinder, lite synthetic jazz-funk, a blue eyed soul tune, cosmic synth breaks and even reggae. A bit like a skewed survey of radio rock/pop of the era made in a bedroom by one fella and his arsenal of keyboards. Konrad: A one man genre that he also termed Ethereal Sequence which he described as "the sequence of the soul". This music scientist is an electro wizard. 

Lyrical and theme-wise Evil is somewhat of a concept LP. After seeing a lot of violence and murder on the streets of NYC, the assassination of John Lennon was the catalyst for him "to build a non violent record where he could teach human beings not to be evil" Other topics include science, the cosmos, synchronicity, the matrix, alien intelligence and the drudgery of work.

Cult-y outsider music albums can often be a difficult listen or just utter crap but this is incredibly accessible pop music.  

The unadulterated humanity here might just be the tonic you need in these spiritually bankrupt times.