The Music Court

A wildflower is a flower that grows without any manipulation – it simply sprouts up, nature its gardener. Well, in a way the aptly named The Wilde Flowers also grew  in the wild; the first band to feature an agglutination of jazz-influenced musicians who would end up dispersing, like seeds, and forming other, more popular acts, that would define the Canterbury Scene, a convenient term used to describe progressive musicians who, to stay with the flower theme, sprouted up in and around Canterbury, England.

Progressive rock is today viewed as a popular 70s creation. Those who support that claim cite the peak of its success with bands like Genesis, ELO, Rush, and, of course, Pink Floyd (who kind of hovered above any genre specification). And like in many musical situations, the underground roots are buried and forgotten. I hate not giving credit where credit is due. So, today, I wish to highlight The Wilde Flowers, a band that featured a progressive group of musicians – who would later form bands like Caravan and the Soft Machine (two of the earliest progressive rock bands). Yes, in many ways, The Wilde Flowers were the predecessor of the predecessors.

Let’s start with this cover of blues/jazz pianist Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm.” This is perhaps my favorite cover of the song because (besides from just being plain jazz cafe cool) it is so obviously influential. The low-key, almost droning vocal, constant drumming and repetitive bass riff, the sweet horn – it’s all so fresh, original, and inspirational. We are talking about an era in the mid 1960s (the band was around from 1963-1967) that Jazz music was put to the wayside, in favor of the blossoming folk, psychedelic, and hard rock scene. The Wilde Flowers brought Jazz back and combined Jazz sentiments with the popular rock sound. They were exploring the foundations of progressive rock prior to progressive rock had foundations.

So let’s look a little bit into the band’s history.

The band, like mentioned above, lasted for around four years and featured several musicians who would go on and play in other progressive rock bands. In many ways, my father put it best. The music scene of the 1960s was quite incestuous. Musicians played in one band and then founded a more popular band and then left and went to another band (i.e. Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood – the list goes on and on). The Canterbury scene is no different. We start with our originals.

Brian Hopper (guitar, sax, flute, vocals), Hugh Hopper (bass), Robert Wyatt (drums), Richard Sinclair (guitar, vocals), Kevin Ayers (vocals and by the way Kevin Ayers released an album in 2007 entitled Unfairground which is downright excellent). Let’s also add Daevid Allen to this list. While he was not part of the band, Allen, an Australian-born music-lover, formed the Daevid Allen Trio with Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper prior to the inception of The Wilde Flowers. He is a big reason why Wyatt and Hopper were introduced to so many jazz/blues records.

Back to the Wilde Flowers. The group originally played soul/blues covers (Booker T, Ray Charles) but moved towards Jazz and naturally (albeit almost accidentally) the two genres fused.

The band released a demo in 1965 and in March of that year Kevin Ayers went with Daevid Allen to Ibiza (classic Beat fashion – keep traveling – he’s going to form the Soft Machine in a bit). Wyatt started singing lead vocals until, for a bit of time, Graham Flight was brought in during the summer of 1965 to sing – but would then leave after five months. I guess you sort of see how the rest of this band’s history is going to look. Heck, they may have eventually seen success if they all stayed together. Several bands were founded by ex-members of The Wilde Flowers. They were like the Yardbirds or Bluesbreakers of Prog-Rock.

In the same year, Sinclair left for college (he will form Caravan soon) and Wyatt would leave to join the Soft Machine soon as well. Richard Coughlan (no recordings available) came in to play drums and Pye Hastings to play guitar and vocals.

In 1966, Hugh Hopper left to join the Soft Machine (Dave Lawrence took his place). In 1967 the group was discontinued after Brian Hopper (last original member) joined the Soft Machine and many of the other stragglers joined Caravan. And, trust me, more bands would be formed. But for the short time this extremely talented (now supergroup) was together, they created some different music.

“Never Leave Me” is one of my favorite Wilde Flowers originals. It is heavy-drummer piece with a curious vocal, jazzy guitar, and neat vocal. It is a mixture of a whole bunch of stuff – and it wouldn’t be Wilde if it wasn’t, now would it?

Warning: If you have taped the X Factor and have shielded yourself from any entertainment media outlets as to prevent yourself from seeing the top 5 then close this page! Also, if you have no interest in this highly entertaining, but somewhat contrived and most definitely hyperbolic mega-reality talent competition, then might I suggest reading about Dantalian’s Chariot (The Music Court’s Obscure Classic Rock post from Wednesday). Or, come along for the ride with me. I promise I will make this look at the X Factor’s final five accessible.

Well folks, we are down to our top five contestants on Fox’s The X-Factor. The show, which will reward the winner with a $5 million dollar prize and a super recording contract (and the heavy burden of attempting to not fall into competition winner obscurity, a plague that most singing competition winners have fallen victim to), has been thoroughly entertaining up to this point. Seriously. It has provided this authentically peculiar flavor, marked by waves of emotion, gaudy performances, and dueling judges. Personally, I think the best part of the show is the interaction between the judges, who “apparently” are not putting on an act just for the show. I put the word apparently in quotes because, despite contestants saying that the judges do legitimately fight off-camera, I am weary of believing anything I see on reality television. Real World: X Factor.

The basic premise of the show at this point is that the judges have their own specific groups of contestants. Arrogant but lovable Simon Cowell mentors the girls, king of the annoying head-shake, must similar to Night at the Roxbury, record-producer L.A. Reid advises the boys, insanely good-looking but candidate for mental analysis Nicole Scherzinger mentors the over-30s (now down to only one contestant), and a surprisingly sober and cogent Paula Abdul mentored the groups, all four of which have already been eliminated from the show. The judges all want their disciples to win. Obviously. Yet, they also vote for who gets eliminated when the two contestants with the lowest number of votes have to sing for their survival. This has been slightly altered over the past two weeks. The contestant with the lowest number of votes has been booted from the show without a chance to redeem themselves, and the contestants with the second and third least number of votes sing for survival. ANYWAY, we are down to the top five and I want to pose the question to all of you, who will win?

You know what that means? POLL TIME!!! Ahh…YEAH! Are you excited. No. GET EXCITED! Okay, I’ll stop. Let’s make this a poll with a large population sample. Spread this around. The more you get other people to vote, the more interesting this brief study will be. Below I will list off the final five and give a short sentence analysis. If you haven’t watched the show before, judge them on their performances (you can go on youtube and find more than the one I will post)

Chris Rene

Rene, in my mind, will be a succesful artist without even winning the show, which I think he will win. He is a multi-talented singer/songwriter/rapper and is able to cajole an audience with his elegant swagger, passionate voice, and sincerity.

Melanie Amaro

Amaro was/still is a favorite to win the show. She is the resident Whitney Houston (every show has to have one). She is true to her roots (recently paying homage to her Latin American heritage by randomly starting to talk in her true accent – which sounded like Miss Cleo. Seriously, click that and you will see the Youtube video of it.

Josh Krajcik

The last contestant in the over-30s, Josh Krajcik is a tremendous singer with rock roots. His performance of “Wild Horses” was majestic. He captures such emotion in his croon, but is also able to cut loose during rockier performances.

Marcus Canty

The always smiling Canty is so likeable that it’s hard not to cheer for him. He also puts a lot into his performances which perhaps covers up some vocal blemishes. Whatever the case may be, something has gotten him into the top five, and while I believe he may be the fifth placeman when all is said and done, I will still cheer for him.

Rachel Crow

And last, but certainly not least, Rachel Crow, whose cuteness can actually detract from her epic youthful voice and energy. She continues to easily slide by every week and, who knows, she may have a big enough fan base to propel her past the favorites.

There you have it. Who is going to win. Vote below! I’m also eager to here your opinions on why you think your favorite will win. Comment on this post and let’s talk.

Good morning readers. Today, as if anyone really needs a reminder, is Thanksgiving, and I sincerely hope that you all have a comfortable home and family/friends to share the gluttonous holiday with.

Thanksgiving is indeed marked by a voraciousness unlike any other holiday.The food is an obvious component. The plentiful quantity of food and the sleepy combination of tryptophan, stuffing and sweet potato, can make any dieter come out of their shells for one night. Then, after consuming a vast quantity of food, it has now become a quasi-tradition to take advantage of Black Friday deals at major retailers by braving other stuffed souls also looking to get a great deal on a television.

And isn’t it all wonderful. Seriously? I think it is excellent. But while we are celebrating the holiday, please do think of those not in a comfortable situation. Take your spare time to volunteer at a soup kitchen. And, if you simply cannot, donate some money to the cause. Be thankful for your situation, but also cognizant of the needy.

Now it has become a semi-tradition here at the Music Court to profile one particular song every Thanksgiving. The words “song and Thanksgiving” should give the song away. Seriously, this particular song gets its most plays on Thanksgiving, because, well, it was over 40 Thanksgiving’s ago that Arlo Guthrie and his friend went to go visit Alice at the restaurant, not that Alice’s Restaurant is the name of the restaurant, no, it’s just the name of the song!

The perilous tale of Alice’s Restaurant has become as much of a Thanksgiving staple as canned yams. It, keeping with the theme of gluttony, is a whopping 16 minutes long, and, if you have some time to yourself prior to watching the parade in 15 minutes, I suggest you listen to it once through.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Oh, and make sure to take out your garbage!