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Volume 4
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| 'The Lords Of The Manor'
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Ten more fonts of fruitiness
from the garden of lounge delights...
We've been at it again! We
present Volume Four of our celebrated Lounge digest. Much digging has
been undertaken to uncover both facts and tracks from a bunch of new
names to add to the expanding list of sultans of suave. No mouldy box
of albums has been left unturned, no clue about the joys of unheard
tracks has been ignored, and again we have prevailed, so sit back and
enjoy!
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| Alan Hawkshaw |
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Alan Hawkshaw is probably the
undisputed king of Library music composers, with many, many
funky gems to his credit, as well as a whole stack of ultra-familiar,
yet largely crap TV tunes like the themes to Countdown and Grange
Hill. As with many session players, regular stints in the studio
for Chappell, DeWolfe and KPM were but a mildly profitable sideline
to the serious business of paid sessions and the odd tour in
a proper band, and Hawkshaw went through all of these phases
in his time.
In the very early
60's he started off in the very steady middle of the road outfit
Emile Ford and the Checkmates who had previously had hits with
slush like 'Slow Boat To China'. Poor little Alan, having to
pump that rubbish out, but he stuck with it way up until '67!
Session work was to be his salvation, and a reputation as an
organ grinder supreme was quickly build, as he hooked up with
arranger Keith Mansfield for a good spell in the latter part
of the decade, pumping out keyboard lines for the whole roster
of chart acts under Mansfield's wing. During this time he also
came into acquaintance with the sometime Shadows drummer Brian
Bennett. This lead to the unlikely spectacle of the Shads boasting
a chunky Hammond sound on their tours of 1968 when guitarist
Bruce Welsh quit and left poor Hank high and dry, and The Hawk
stepped in. Around this time the sessions took place that resulted
in the now legendary Mohawks issues. Essentially intended for
library use, they surfaced on the Pama label in 1968 in the
midst of the ska craze of the time. During the early part of
the 70's Hawkshaw got his regular payday once more from The
Shadows between sessions for anyone from Serge Gainsbourg to
Olivia Newton John and a semi-permanent gig with the dreaded
Cliff himself (is that The Hawk on 'Devil Woman' we wonder!).
Thankfully he is still active in the world of TV orchestration
today and will now and again pop up with the score to the odd
ITV drama or some such, but you wouldn't find much funky Hammond
action on them.
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Ahh, The Mohawks 'The Champ' (Pama
1968)...before you start hollering, 'fraid this is the early 90's
reissue as we've not been blessed with the fortune of finding
an original pressing of this sought-after item. There's a more
recent issue with a couple of bonus cuts of dubious sound quality
too. Apart from 'The Champ', The Hawk is at his strongest on the
tracks licenced from KPM, namely 'Senior Thump', 'Dr Jekyll &
Mr Hyde', 'Rocky Mountain Roundabout' and the legendary 'Beat
Me Till I'm Blue' (a slightly different version from the KPM album)
- all excellent and defintely the pick from the album. |
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| Now, it has recently
come to our attention (from the Hawk himself, no less!!) that
Graham Walker was, and indeed is, an actual person and not a pseudonim
for Mr. Hawkshaw...However, as he was the lead player on the sessions
that yielded the above albums we'll include them, for his contributions
are mightily significant! 'Famous TV Themes' from The Graham Walker
Sound (Saga, 1969) is a pretty excellent offering as TV themes
albums go, it serves up the splendid 'Mission Impossible' and
'Department S' along with Harry Rabinowitz's then theme for 'Top
Of The Pops'. Most startling is a superb trot at the hackneyed
'Crossroads', which is just bliss itself, with loads of flute
and funky keys. A revelation! The Graham Walker Sound then did
the next most compulsory thing to do, after TV themes that is,
and had a bash at 'Hair' (Saga, 1969). As collections from the
musical go, this has to be right up there with the best, with
loads of pounding organ action from the man himself, but as usual,
the material is highly dubious from the off, and you get all the
usual whooping singers spoiling things along the way, so ultimately
it is not entirely satisfying, but the best you might expect.
Strangely this was given a 10th anniversary reissue on the legendary
Boulevard label in 1979. Why? |
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Next up, The Hawk was roped in by
fellow library man John Fiddey to provide some tunes for the appalling
British tits 'n' ass 'B'-flick 'Groupie Girl' (Polydor, 1970).
Under the guise of fictitious monikers like The Salon Band and
Virgin Stigma, he contributes much to quite a groovy little soundtrack
that covers all ground from breezy cheese and far-out psyche to
Free-like plod-rock. The extended glories of the totally smashing
'Sweet Motion' are up there with his best funky gear. |
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The only way it seemed that poor
Alan could actually get his own name on the sleeve of a record
was by agreeing to plug Philips' new organ on 'Organ Sounds In
Super Stereo: Alan Hawkshaw Plays The Philicorda' (Philips, 1972).
As part of the bribe, they wheeled one round to his lush pad,
and he tinkled away on some family favourites on what is a very
disappointing album, when you consider the magnitude of the players
involved. Standards are dusted off and given a little bit of fresh
air, but the musty odour still remains on chuff like 'Strangers
In The Night'. Just about there saving the day are the ever reliable
'Girl From Ipanema' and 'Spinning Wheel'. In fact the strength
of the latter just about excuses the rubbishness of the rest of
the album, which was clearly tossed off for cash in hand and a
free Joanna ! |
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Hawkshaw's next foray into TV themeland
was altogether more of an interesting proposition, and born out
of the success of a couple of his own library compositions that
had been picked up for regular TV use at the time. Leading the
way on '27 Top TV Themes & Commercials' (Studio2Stereo, 1972)
is his own 'Blarney's Stoned'; used on the church-bating, missing-fingered
Irish comic Dave Allen's TV show on the BBC throughout the 70's;
a great organ and saxophone carve-up that always pleases. Not
far behind is the unlikely titled 'Poppochoc', which was used
to push Milky Ways down kids' throats, even between mealtimes!
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lines, Hawkshaw's version of the track 'The Night Rider' was employed
until not very long ago as the daredevil orchestral funk theme
for a long series of adverts where some mad stalker stuntman keeps
leaving crap chocolates in the boudoirs of exotic ladies the world
over, without so much as an explanation, apart from the inadequate
"just because the lady loves Milk Tray". |
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An album that could be credited
to Hawkshaw or long-time friend and collaborator Brian Bennett
is 'Misty' by Collage (Studio2Stereo, 1973) - aka Hawkshaw, Bennett,
Dave Richmond and David Snell amongst others, with Hawkshaw being
responsible for all of the orchestral arrangements and one of
the two original tracks on this album. Although beautifully arranged,
this album does suffer from a rather lame track listing, featuring
such horrors as 'Love For Sale', 'Close To You' and 'Laura' -
but, hang on in there and check out the Hawkshaw-penned "Madrid"
that, although it is so laidback it has the potential to send
you to sleep, is loaded with lush keys and vibes that make it
a more than worthwhile experience... |
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On 'Non Stop Hammond
Hits' (Polydor, 1974) Alan belts out his trademark Hammond
routine in the 'Pop' style, although this is a full medley
album of covers and so there's unfortunately no funk to be
found. What a shame…it's quite clear on this record he's cashing
in, even with the 'Funky' trumpet of Ray Davies behind him
they just seem to plod along.
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| Dick Hyman |
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| As well as being an
integral part of a good deal of the releases on Enoch Light's
Command and Project 3 labels, Dick Hyman also had fingers in a
multitude of pies down the years, and many none too tasty ones
either! Kicking off in the post-war big bands of Benny Goodman
and others, Hyman developed a rather worthy and highbrow reputation
in many stuffy jazz projects, whilst simultaneously jobbing away
at honky-tonk piano for TV shows to pay the rent. Always interested
in different areas in which to operate, he quickly succumbed to
the joys of the Moog, and hence raises our interest here. Alas,
such things were short-lived, and to-ing and fro-ing from the
sublime to the ridiculous has been a characteristic of his career;
one day scoring for The Montreal Ballet Company, the next arranging
standards for Barry Manilow. Nasty! Perhaps the way in which we
all are subliminally most familiar with Hyman however, is due
to his long association with Woody Allen, having provided him
with umpteen vintage jazz facsimile film soundtracks for nigh
on 30 years, right up to the present day. |
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Some of Hyman's early Command albums
are well worth picking up for cheap. Recommended are 'Mirrors',
that features a spine-tingling, slow and moody version of 'Ode
To Billy Joe' and uptempo 'Respect' and 'Sweet Sweet Soul' that
include 'Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay' and 'Soul Man' amongst
the track listing.
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| If you have a couple
of quid to spare, add 'Electrodynamics' and 'The Man From O.R.G.A.N'
to your shopping list, especially the latter as it's stuffed full
of 60's spy themes including 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' and 'Agent
Double-O-Soul'. |
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There are many, many
curious moments to be had on Hyman's first wrestle with the
Moog on 'Moog-The Electric Eclectics Of Dick Hyman' (Command,
1969). It veers wildly from playful cheese to deep space computer-speak,
and touches base at all points in between. Fortunately, the
majority of the cuts are held together by some splendid work
on the skins that shine most brightly on the up-tempo 'The Moog
& Me' and the weird 'Dancing Girls Of Corfu'. The highlight
for many is the mammoth 'The Minotaur', which at times sounds
as if it could have made it onto an early Kraftwerk album, with
much Theramin-style wooooodle-ooodling being anchored
to this side of the galaxy by a basic rolling theme that keeps
all in order. Overall though, this album is pretty out there,
and is a potential frightener for old ladies and young children
in the right places!
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The same can easily
be said for the follow-up 'The Age Of Electronicus' (Command,
1970) that features the marvellous Moogified cover of James
Brown's 'Give It Up Or Turn It Loose'. Add to this 'Green Onions',
'Time Is Tight' and the wacky 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' and you're
onto a great, smile-on-your-face album.
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| Laurie Johnson |
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| Laurie Johnson is certainly
one of the most prolific soundtrack composers around, having delivered
upwards of 400 scores for film and TV of all kinds. It is most
definitely the latter for which he is best appreciated hereabouts,
as the movies he was involved in were often very much of the 'B'
variety; the only film of any lasting note he scored being Kubrick's
Dr. Strangelove, and maybe Jason & The Argonaughts, on which he
assisted Bernard Herrmann. Johnson's first professional job was
arranging with the Ted Heath band of the 1940's and after a fairly
long apprenticeship he began recording cheesy versions of hits
of the day for Pye Records in 1955. The advent of independent
television and the popular adventure and spy series they produced
quickly gave Johnson his niche. Following up a big hit with the
theme for Top Secret in 1961, he struck gold when his tune 'The
Shake' was chosen as the new theme for the fourth series of The
Avengers, coinciding with the debut of the scrumptious Diana Rigg.
TV continued to be good to Johnson throughout the 60's, and ITV
favourites like Whicker's World, World in Action and This is Your
Life are all down to him. Also, let us not forget that this is
the man who composed the ultra-cheesy theme for the equally cheesy
detective show Jason King starring Peter Wynegarde. The best was
yet to come though, as in the 70's he founded Mark One Productions
with Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell which delivered the goods
in the most magnificent way in the shape of The New Avengers and
The Professionals. Johnson is still around today conducting his
beloved orchestral jazz at places like the Albert Hall and producing
the odd TV show. |
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Here's two words you
don't often hear in the same sentence - 'Marble Arch' and 'Rarity'...but
believe us you must!! This 1967 album is a comp of early Johnson
arrangements and, believe me again, it stinks! Well, obviously
the original 'Avengers' theme is a great nostalgia trip, but
the rest of the LP consists of compositions from 'My Fair Lady',
'South Pacific' and 'The Sound Of Music' - eeek !
For die-hard Johnson
fans only...
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One with much more to offer is
'Two Cities Suite' (Pye, 1966), which contains at least a couple
of cheesy morsels, one from each side of the pond. On the London
side things are a bit grim for large stretches, but 'West End'
finishes things off with rousing brass. Over on the New York side
is the big orchestral swinger 'Latin Quarter'. The sleevenotes
say it was used for an cop show called Riviera Police...good call!!! |
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On 'Synthesis' (EMI,
1970) Johnson composes and arranges a symphony for combined
86-piece orchestra and 19-piece jazz group merging classical
and big band jazz writing in a breathtaking manner. The dynamics
and emotions range from still beauty through to aggressive,
uptempo, swinging jazz and everything in between, creating for
the listener wild musical journey that will also set you back
a pretty penny to enjoy!
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The
best-known, and most funky moments from Laurie Johnson's career
are all collected on a single album: 'Music From The Avengers,
The New Avengers & The Professionals' (Unicorn, 1980). Here
the memory of The Avengers themes is refreshed by a new recording,
and a bunch of stuff is collected from both the 60's and 70's
versions of the show, the highlight undoubtedly being the very
British orchestral funk of 'Main Title' from the newer series.
Over on side two there are many excellent cuts from the top
guns 'n' cars show of its day, The Professionals. More in-depth
info on these shows can be found on our T
is for Themes page.
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Pretty
much all of the Professionals tracks are well up to muster,
not least the pacey title track. The
motif from that is used on the other tracks in various atmospheric
ways, as suggested by titles like 'In Pursuit' and 'On The Scent'.
Cracking stuff !
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