The album you couldn't bring home to Mom!
In 1979, following his old friend Mike Patto’s death, Ollie Halsall was in bad shape and, from what I’ve read, pretty much homeless. Using borrowed equipment and playing all the instruments himself he recorded a set of demos that would be released after his death as Caves. The following tracks are pretty cool in the kind of homemade, pop-smart way that plays well in these hallowed halls. I believe one of Halsall’s late-life musician friends, John Otway, another character whose music I always mean to check out, helped bring these recordings to light.
Ollie Halsall, “Summertime Food”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Ollie-Halsall_12_Summertime-Food.mp3|titles=Ollie Halsall, “Summertime Food”]Ollie Halsall, “Door To Daughter”
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Ollie-Halsall_05_Door-To-Daughter.mp3|titles=Ollie Halsall, “Door To Daughter”]And that, my friends—at least until I run across a bootleg of Halsall’s unreleased, Robert Fripp-produced album—is all I’ve got to say on my long-overdue time spent with Patto. Enjoy.
I liked it this afternoon when I first listened to the long song. It seemed like a combination of Hendrixian guitar and Dylanesque lyrics. I knew there was that new boxset of Hendrix playing with other people that I hadn’t heard, but Halsall obviously didn’t get Hendrix’s taste with his influence.
The piano sounded very Leon Russell, which is why I wanted to guess Benno, but Russell was so influential around this time that I think all piano players wanted to sound like him. He was a big influence on early Bill Payne, and this song has some of Little Feat’s burnout humor. Now that I’ve read more about these guys, the lyrics I thought were Dylanesque seem more like reportage:
See I’d taken to wearing sandals and I’d given up watching T.V.
I was rolling up grass in the American flag and I was sick from snorting “C”
I blew my mind out on a trip one night and I ran all the way back to town
But the minute I saw the lights in their faces I freaked and turned right around
Well my skin turned yellow and my eyes sunk back from my diet of boiled brown rice
I would shuffle past bright warm houses to my groove pad cold as ice
I’ve been beaten down and busted and I’ve wound up on my own
And there’s nothing left that buzzes me so I’m returning home
Nice legwork btw, Mod. You may have left this out because you had so much else to fill us in on, but Halsall played a lot with Kevin Ayers, and he’s on that Cale/Ayers/Eno/Nico album called June 1, 1974.
I like the way you broke this down. Like you, BigSteve, I liked that first, long song, despite Halsall’s lack of taste. I did mention the Ayers connection and posted a clip of Andy Summers jamming with them. I know there’s a lot I crammed in here. I always like the Kevin Ayers stuff I’ve got, yet I’m almost always left wishing he was a notch better, or should I say better defined.
Ayers never seemed to take his solo career very seriously. Every once in a while he’d trot out a collection of his droll little tunes with a seeming blase offhandedness. I enjoy a lot of his work but you’re right in that it appears he never tried very hard.
Mod, a very interesting entry here; so interesting, in fact, that I temporarily forgot how boring the band itself is (based on the songs posted–maybe you’re holding back their killer songs). But then I listened to “The Man” and was reminded. Anyway, good work and very educational.
No, I wish I could say I was holding something fantastic. I get my kicks out of mediocre, artsy blooz music from this period. Coupled with the band’s tremendous back story I couldn’t resist digging deeper.