My first album, FLOATING, was released In 1973 and sank without trace. My mother was the only person I knew who had a copy. Had this happened today, my career would ended then and there. But Tim Murdoch, who ran my record company, still believed. Hed given me a three album contract and he was going to honour that. So GARDEN FRESH was recorded and the rest, as they say, was history. I must confess that both Mike Harvey, my dear friend and arranger/producer in those years, looked back on FLOATING in much the same way we all look back of shots of ourselves in the 80s - with mullets, rolled up sleeves and shoulder pads - what was I thinking!!?? However, I was surprised by the amount of people who contacted me when I released my retrospective AFTER THE DAM BROKE to ask why there were no songs from Floating included in this collection. One lady even told me she was named Shyanne because her parents liked the song Shy Anne on Floating. Fact was, even if Id wanted to include songs off this album, I couldnt find the master tapes. But a determined drive to get all NZ vinyl records onto a digital format, championed by the indefatigable Kiwi music industry character, Chris Caddick, led to FLOATING being rescued off vinyl and remastered by Steve McGough at Stebbing Recordings. (I mention all of these people by name because without them all this old music would be lost forever and they deserve recognition for their efforts. Trust me when I say they arent doing it for the money). Anyway as a result all the songs off FLOATING are now available on iTunes or amplifier.co.nz amplifier.co.nz/release/108953/floating.html The recording techniques were basic, the songs are mostly very short, (around 3 minutes, pretty much the standard in those days, although one is only 1min 20secs), my voice is young and vibrato-filled and in many cases the band played too fast for my taste today. But songs like Floating, A Minor Occurrence and Flight of the Seagull have a certain folky charm and I can see why Shyannes parents liked the song. As for Joes Promise, I have no idea what I was thinking, but I like it :)) So now you know. Please tell anyone who might care. John Hanlon, Chiang Mai, July 29, 2014
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 00:18:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015