Mar 052008
I’ve yet to see a news link, but we were tipped off to news of the death of Norman “Hurricane” Smith by an RTH Basement Dweller. I’ve found the Beatles’ fanboy discussion topic linked in the title of this thread to back it up.
Following his fantastic work with The Beatles, early Pink Floyd, and psychedelically psavvy The Pretty Things, he experienced some solo performer success as Hurricane Smith. “Oh Babe What Would You Say?” was one of my early childhood singles.
Dig that Look!
NEW: Here’s a cool Mojo piece on the man.
This song actually charted in the US? I have no recollection of ever hearing it. And I know you’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but that’s the worst vocalizing I’ve heard in a while.
Whoa – I’m gonna guess he’ll be played by Alan Rickman when they make ‘The Hurricane Smith’ story; and apparently not have to alter much of his Harry Potter wardrobe, either…
Right now I can’t picture who will be looping the English language version, though…is Carol Channing otherwise engaged?
‘Nuff o joshing – in fact it was on his watch that popular music went from the ‘lab coat’ era and cutting ten songs in ten hours to the way it’s done now. Lewisohn’s EMI book
has a lot of stories about what the Abbey Road engineers – not ‘engineers’ in quotes, went thru to force the technology to serve the vision. For that alone he deserves his props…
And maybe we can forgive the singing…
The man had a face for engineering. And a great engineer he was!
I knew “Oh Babe, What Would You Say” but hadn’t heard the song above before. I’m kinda fascinated by that video. Can’t help but think of Alice Cooper as Marvin Sunk – the Sun King – doing “Because” in the Sgt. Pepper movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frqQ6rPmnIc
Now THERE’S a song Matthew Sweet needs to cover!
Notice that Giant Head of Hurricane Smith was not just a separate camera doing a close-up and jammed into the Hollywood Squares motif: It was filmed separately.
Wow. That sucks. Parachute by the Pretty Things was a very well produced album (are the bonus tracks produced by him? Blue Serge Blues and October 26 are both unknown classics…)