TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Hi all,

I've had a habit of being stuck in the 70s now for around 35 years and still absolutely love the music.

In the car, I was playing "A Sailor's life" again (Watching the Dark version) and I just so love that track.

True, I love RT's guitar and Sandy's voice and the crispness of the drumming is devine.

However, what it strongly caused me to recall is that for the last 30 + years, I have been looking for more of the same as is encapsulated within that track.

I used to call the music "tripping" music (never having taken lsd) and "trucking" music (it just goes on and on and if it went on for ever, I'd be happy).

I love the multiple layers that complement each other but it always has an incessant yet relaxed drive about it.

In short, can anyone point me in the direction of alternative examples of this "genre" for which I have one shining example called "A Sailor's Life"!

I often expected the Grateful Dead to satisfy my need and recently bought Aoxomoxoa. Don't like the west coast influence and I was very disappointed with it being a studio album. Perhaps "Live Dead"? I feel I get close to the Sound at times with Can who I was lucky to see many decades ago in Friars Club Aylesbury. Aspects of King Crimson also do it for me and I absolutely love their Album "Islands" because of that melodic "groove".

I would love to hear other people's taste in this genre. Really, what I am looking for is examples of the style of music that is so beautifully captured in "A Sailor's Life"

Yes, I know Sloth (Magnificent) and Matty Groves (Haunting) but I want to find examples outside of Fairport and RT.

Happy recalling and reminiscing.

Andy

Try "On The Shore" by Trees.

Agree with 'On the Shore'.  'Aoxomoxoa' is not a particularly good choice dor the Dead. Try 'Anthem of the Sun' and 'Live Dead' (the original, with the red cover'.  Television 'Marquee Moon' - the title track.
Quicksilver's first two albums.  Mighty Baby 'Jug of Love'.....I'll be back later with more suggestions 8) 8)

Agree about Television's Marquee Moon.  I think that one might just do it for you.

Jules

I think you fall into the intricate jam band type of sound. Alman brothers, santana, and even Phish have this sort of sound. You might also try the band renaissance. Carpets of the sun and mother russia have some of that sound. I always called this type of music as noodling or jam band. If you like KC, you might also try some of the space rock, jazz fusion,  or prog bands like necktar, gentle giant, weather report, etc.

And you could try Astralasia (sort of Spacey Dancey)

Or Robert Fripp's Soundscapes

Or Eno

Or any of that crowd really.... ::)

Most definitely seconded.

Some of the tracks off "No Roses" - the Shirley Collins/Albion Band - have a similar feel, especially Maria Marten and the Poor Murdered Girl one.  R< live created that similar kind of groove, i.e. Night Comes In, Calvary Cross.

My word ... thanks all

That's certainly stirred up some good memories

A few themes I know and have some examples - Robert Fripp, Eno, Gentle Giant, Dead, Renaissance, Santana

A few themes I know of but have yet to purchase - Quicksilver

A few themes that are new - Television, Trees, Albion Band, Australasia, Mighty Baby, Nektar

A few themes that I've tried but struck dead ends - Weather Report


Wow, where next for me and my cheque book.

Definitely Quicksilver, more Gentle Giant and more Fripp (Soundscapes). Very curious about Television, Australasia, Trees (On the Shore).

Thanks again and more examples are really welcome. For me this is a really great way to expand my knowledge of aspects of music. I hope others are enjoying this thread also.

Andy

Btw, Born in Oxford, lived in Wheatley.... saw many of the 70s band but just missed out on the Doors due to events in Paris .....

Funny - I nearly mentioned the Doors.  Some of their longer instrumental passages sometimes get into Sailor's Life territory.

Jules

Ummm Astralasia not Australasia :D

try here
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=117831920

Hmmm... I see your methods of payment are also wedded to the 1970's  ;D

DC

A little out there, but you might try the bones of all men. It is philip pickett with RT and FC. It is medieval noodling. I like it, but it doesn't fit exactly what you want, but it is one of my favorites and it is hard to classify.

I also like Gryphon.

Steve Morse high tension wires cd has a lot of instrumentals.

The Grateful dead song sage and spirit might be want you want.

Traffics john barlycorn has the feel.

Maybe Jethro tulls thick as a brick.

The band Oregon.

Yeah, definitely Bones of All Men is a superb set, and I like Gryphon, too, but I don't think either is in the same genre as Sailor's Life - but if you like any of these you'll probably like them all, if my taste is anything to go by (probably not!).

Interesting crossover between baroque classical and folk/rock - Bex and I are experimenting with playing some Carolan in the baroque style as opposed to the Irish trad style, as we believe he was a contemporary of some of the baroque clasiical composers.

DC

personally i think "a sailors life" is its own genre theres nothing that springs to my mind that builds quite like it, true musical genius, it transcends all attempts to sully its memory. i think we all know who and what i'm on about

Thanks for the pickup on Astralasia. I guess my error is due to me now being an antipode.

Perhaps "A Sailors Life" is indeed its own genre.

On the Doors front, I find I am in the same groove when listening to "When the Musics Over" on Absolutely Live.

Although I haven't heard it for decades, "Lost in Space" by Hawkwind does it for me as well.

Another one that does it is an Asturian folk band called Felpeyu.

I think the word that fits best is jamming. (Even though the Hawkwind and Doors examples above violate that principle).

I just love the sense of a band of people each working within the same rythmic energy whilst also exploring  their own boundaries in a manner that builds and complements rather than segments and destroys.

People may say I'm talking jazz but I'm not as jazz seems to me to be played for the benefit of the players rather than the community. Folk roots play for the community not for the ego.

I feel included with folk music. I feel excluded by jazz.

Does that make sense to anyone??

Andy

PS From sunny Australasia. (Shame that global warming is leading to our extinction. It sure feels nice!!)
PPS Nice pickup with "Thick as a Brick" ... wonderful album.

To link with this try the Welsh Band....Man.
The late John Cippolina (SP.?) from QMS guested with them on a live album.
To link with 'A Sailor's Life'..the longer tracks from Fotheringay?

 Ah! Noodling..... ;D

  Neil Young produced quite a few pieces which have that extended, moody, jamming feel - thinking particularly of Cortez the killer, Cowgirl in the sand, Down by the river...

  A single suggestion would be Tim Buckley's 'Dream letter' - a fairly intense, atmospheric live album, with elements of jazz that don't overwhelm the warmth and honesty of the songs. Brilliant musicianship too!  :)

Has anyone mentioned the live version of Reno, Nevada by FC? That builds in much the same way and has a blinding solo by RT on it.

Night Comes In.... Calvary Cross...

This is news  :)

First looks at google tells me it was never released.

Is it possible to get my cheque book (sorry plastic) out??

If so, where, how much......

Andy

PS Hope Australia beat England in the 20/20 !

It's an extra track on the remastered first FC album ;D

Sorry, Andy, I meant to say!  ::)

Are you talking about the version that's on the BBC boxset? If so, as good as that is, it doesn't hold a candle to the albeit poor-audio-quality version that was played during Jude's phone interview with that gent from NY. RT was on FIRE

That was from a French TV special wasn't it?

Yes it was from the Bouton Rouge French TV show.

That same recording is on the remastered 1st self-titled FC album, the one with 4 bonus tracks,
And yes Richard was unutterably FAB on that 8) ;D

Hanged I Shall Be - Albion Country Band - Battle Of The Field

There is actually a video of that, as I remember it being on Folk Britainia.

Did anyone mention Gresford Disaster from the Albions?  Gotta have that one!

But if you want to come close to that journeyman, primal dynamic, the Dead is a good resource - lotsa stuff from the Vault and D-Picks releases to find Sailor Life-ish mojo.  Look for live material from 1974 in particular.  New Potato Caboose from the already mentioned Anthem of the Sun will satisfy as well.  

Look for Golden Palameno's Drunk With Passion album, for track The Haunting (w/ RT guitar).  That will get you where you need to go!

I'll think of some more stuff later!

I have to admit to not listening to this track for ages, but I am now....WOW!  8) 8) 8) I'd forgotten how good this is. I really wish that the L&L line up at Cropredy had done this.

A lot of these suggestions include a certain Mr RT somewhere in the mix. . .so try the contrasting but equally brilliant tracks:

The Cuckoo's Nest (first Morris On album: nb the lyrics make Bonny Black Hare sound like Enid Blyton)
Shoot Out the Lights (Richard and Linda T)

Late entry:

"Fanny Blair" by the Oyster Band - I'd forgotten how good this is, murky recording and all.

In all the answers and suggestions here I don't think we should forget what a great question it is that is being asked... What is this "thing" about "A Sailor's Life"? A superb track... even out-stripping Sloth for that ensemble-playing, theme-building, integrated development... So with something that good you do, of course, look for a "follow-up" or "the next Fairport Convention 1969" etc... I'd look at The Way I Feel by Fotheringay... has some of the elements... build, tension, relaxation etc... But also The Doors have been mentioned ... good call... "The End" has some of that fantastic "suite" feel... Sloth itself, of course... But all in all it's about groove (hip, huh?) - about a bunch of excellent musicians working together to develop a theme... maybe more of a jazz thing? Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain or Miles Ahead? Pause to consider what would have happened iof Richard Thompson had worked with Gil Evans... But again... try the long versions of Cowgirl In The Sand by Neil Young, or Cortez The Killer...

Great question anyway... and the dtumming is utterly superb... Martin... still missed!

Yes indeed... what is the ethereal component that keeps "A Sailor's life" alive; concurrently at many levels yet with a brooding, throbbing presence running through it.

I agree "The End" and also suggest "When the Music's Over". I heard a cover version of Cortez the Killer recently and it was magnificent.

Thanks for the input on alternatives so far. Most useful. I have just received Trees and Television and will start playing those.

Another album that really does it for me in the same way is King Crimson's Islands.

At a different level, I'd like to suggest Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air".

I think a quality that I'm starting to recognise is the sense of timelessness that I feel whilst I am listening to these tracks. They all seem to be able to hold the moment for an extended period.

Andy

I've always been intrigued about that record - I must hear it sometime.

Jules